GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested

An anonymous reader writes "Apparently, since gas consumption is going down and fuel efficient cars are becoming more popular, the government is looking into a new form of taxation to create revenue for transportation projects. This new system is a 'by-the-mile tax,' requiring GPS in cars so it can track the mileage. Once a month, the data gets uploaded to a billing center and you are conveniently charged for how much you drove. 'A federal commission, after a two-year study, concluded earlier this year that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion. ... The commission pegged 2020 as the year for the federal fuel tax, currently 18.5 cents a gallon, to be phased out and replaced by a road tax. One estimate of a road tax that would cover the current federal and state fuel taxes is 1 to 2 cents per mile for cars and light trucks.'"

Comments

Re:Incredibally Evil.

[ScentCone]

If we just want to raise more cash, raise the general income or sales tax.

You're missing the point. The Annointed One swore that he wouldn't raise taxes on normal people. Later, when even his supporters are howling about their tax burden, he'll be able to say that he meant income taxes. In the mean time, we're about to have an enormous new electricity tax, and proposals like the one being discussed here will impact average wage earners plenty hard - even those that had the credit and cash on hand to buy a lightweight, fuel-efficient little collapsible death trap of a car so they'd use less fuel.

This is just about raising federal revenue by taxing everyone, despite having single-party control of the government in part because of promises not to do that, so that gigantic spending boondoggles like the nonsensical new Obamacare plan being formed will only put us catastrophically in debt for generations instead of the alternative complete-economic-destruction model that would come from only using pure debt.