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Congress Mulls Research Into a Vehicle Mileage Tax

Posted by kdawson on from the just-get-on-the-bike dept.

BJ_Covert_Action writes to let us know that an Oregon congressman has filed legislation to spend $154.5M for a research project into tracking per-vehicle mileage in the US, and asks: "Do we really want the government to track our movement and driving habits on a regular basis?" "US Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) introduced H.R. 3311 earlier this year to appropriate $154,500,000 for research and study into the transition to a per-mile vehicle tax system... Oregon has successfully tested a Vehicle Miles Traveled fee... the [Oregon] report urged a mandate for all drivers to install GPS tracking devices that would report driving habits to roadside RFID scanning devices." Here is the bill (PDF). The article notes that the congressman's major corporate donors would likely benefit with contracts if such a program were begun.

2 of 792 comments (clear)

  1. Re: hefty annual excise tax by Hognoxious · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Fine, when they're breathing their own atmosphere, killing their own kids with their aggressive driving and getting themselves killed invading foreign countries for the oil.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Re:Dems? by L0rdJedi · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Don't get me wrong, I don't think Obama is the savior of this country by any means. I just think it is fair to pass judgment after he has failed. I am aware of the projections though.

    So what do you suggest? Continue to let them spend money and then take a look at it in 4 years? Or stop them completely right now before the money is spent? Considering that he has spent more money in 6 months than all previous administrations combined, I'd say it's time to stop him before he can spend anymore.

    And actually, if you think this isn't the change he promised, you weren't paying attention during the campaign. Like many people (heck, even I didn't see this coming) we all assumed that when he said "change" that he meant he was going to clean things up. If you watch videos from during the campaign though, it's pretty clear that this is exactly what he was talking about. So you are getting the change that was promised, you're just not getting the change you expected.