Gas $1.65 today.
- Thread starter Extra Point
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Nobody WANTS to be taxed...but there are major infrastructure needs across the country that could possibly benefit from the revenue. The price of gas right now is abaurdly low. Newt Gingrich ran on a platform of $2.50 gas! There will never be a more politically opportune moment to raise the gas tax. People will hardly notice even a ten cent hike. I'd also be in favor of a state increase in NJ but my guess is Christie would veto anything not tied to cuts elsewhere.
I don't bike to work (2010 Prius) but I do recognize that driving is probably TOO cheap at the moment given its impact on both the built and natural environment.
I don't bike to work (2010 Prius) but I do recognize that driving is probably TOO cheap at the moment given its impact on both the built and natural environment.
There should be a mechanism in the tax structure to institute a Federal tax once the price of gas reaches a certain point. The tax would go up by a penny for every 2 cents gas goes down. That money should be put int a pool and then distributed out based on the miles driven in that state or gas consumed. State could use the money for infrastructure only ie roads bridges train track improvement tunnels.
If gas rises then the tax would be removed by a penny for every 2 cents gas goes up.
If gas rises then the tax would be removed by a penny for every 2 cents gas goes up.
I would agree with a gas tax, and all taxes, if it was based on income. People making 50K or less are except from the tax and everyone else pays what ever the government tells them they owe.
I also think that any bicycle that uses the road should pay for an annual registration just like every other vehicle that uses the road.
They could just start seriously fining people who ride bikes on the sidewalk or who run red lights. From what I see on a daily basis in NYC, Hoboken and JC we could plug a lot of budget holes!
Newt wanted gas to be under $2.50 and Republicans were kicking and screaming over Keystone. Funny now that a Canadian company is suing over it and gas is $1.65 their pie holes are whining about other garbage instead of admitting they were wrong- again- and that Obama single handledly saved this country from recession while they fiddled.
They would be the first to go ape if the tunnels under the Hudson closed and people couldn't get to Wall Street. We need to fix the tunnels among other infrastructure. Either increase the gas tax or raise taxes on millionaires.
And, there are plenty of places to cut spending here in NJ. Let's start with telling Christie he has to pay for his own security in NH, must pay all his own Bridgegate legal fees, and telling Exxon Christie's fraudulent deal with them is off. Next up, the Republicans in the legislature can get out of the police union's pocket and go ahead and agree to legislation mandating pension forfeiture for all cops convicted of felonies and those who cover up for them- Linden and Edison alone can cover some nice holes there. And then, they can pass a bill urging Menendez and Booker to petition the Senate to shutter the Port Authority and give control of the PATH to the MTA or NJT.
Newt wanted gas to be under $2.50 and Republicans were kicking and screaming over Keystone. Funny now that a Canadian company is suing over it and gas is $1.65 their pie holes are whining about other garbage instead of admitting they were wrong- again- and that Obama single handledly saved this country from recession while they fiddled.
They would be the first to go ape if the tunnels under the Hudson closed and people couldn't get to Wall Street. We need to fix the tunnels among other infrastructure. Either increase the gas tax or raise taxes on millionaires.
And, there are plenty of places to cut spending here in NJ. Let's start with telling Christie he has to pay for his own security in NH, must pay all his own Bridgegate legal fees, and telling Exxon Christie's fraudulent deal with them is off. Next up, the Republicans in the legislature can get out of the police union's pocket and go ahead and agree to legislation mandating pension forfeiture for all cops convicted of felonies and those who cover up for them- Linden and Edison alone can cover some nice holes there. And then, they can pass a bill urging Menendez and Booker to petition the Senate to shutter the Port Authority and give control of the PATH to the MTA or NJT.
While people dither and some of them allege gas tax money doesn't go to transportation projects without providing one shred of evidence roads and bridges age and decay. They won't fix themselves.
They want to feel virtuous by using the force of government to make you pay for their ideas so they feel better.
So which specific obama policy to believe ha brought us lower gas prices? Blocking drilling on public land. Keeping East the coast drilling ban. Refusing to allow Canadian crude via the Keystone pipeline? Which policy?
Maybe destroying the economy via huge deficits and finding us in another recession/depression?
No need to go to DEFCON 5 buddy. It's a take on a popular meme where he gets blamed for everything, like this....
No DEFCON 5 - just don't like it when points are made that aren't backed up. I'll get my sarcasm meter re-calibrated.No need to go to DEFCON 5 buddy. It's a take on a popular meme where he gets blamed for everything, like this....
I haven't watched this debate yet on the gas tax but these are usually pretty good from IQ2.
http://intelligencesquaredus.org/de...se-the-federal-gas-tax-to-fund-infrastructure
http://intelligencesquaredus.org/de...se-the-federal-gas-tax-to-fund-infrastructure
In other states you have to pump your own gas and it costs more than in NJ where a station employee pumps the gas.I would think that is a form of price gouging in other states except for NJ and Oregon.
But you know the money won't go there and that's the problem.
Not to long ago when gas was at an all time high people tried to Blame Obama and his defenders said you cost blame gas prices on the President and I happen to agree. Curios as to how those same people now give him credit for low prices?
As long as there's a use tax on hybrid drivers to compensate the rest of us for them not paying their fair share to all these infrastructure improvements a gas tax raise is going to fund.
Which is precisely why fuel taxes have no future.
"Pay per mile" is the only workable model. The challenge with PPM is how to maintain general user privacy while recording miles driven. The FHA's argument is that if it's the government's business how much money you make, then it can be their business how many miles you drive, too.
One compromise that's been floated is electronic tolling on all Interstates.
Always wondered why gas is 15 cents or so more a gallon once you get west of Green Brook on 22. (Bridgewater, Somerville, Branchburg, etc)
There's definitely an argument that a use tax is more fair, but the implementation is so much more.complicated than a gas tax hike that I don't really think it's a better alternative. It's not like a Prius is so much more efficient than a tiny economy car. I get 45 mpg, a little less in winter. What does a Kia Rio get?
Anyway, the appeal of a gas tax is not that it's the most perfect, fair way to account for vehicle use, but that it's SIMPLE. There's something to be said for that. In the future when there are a lot of electric vehicles on the road driving thousands of miles without using gas, it might be a bigger deal. Maybe you could tax such vehicles at the point of sale, but considering there are good reasons to encourage sale of those vehicles that also seems like a bad idea.
Anyway, the appeal of a gas tax is not that it's the most perfect, fair way to account for vehicle use, but that it's SIMPLE. There's something to be said for that. In the future when there are a lot of electric vehicles on the road driving thousands of miles without using gas, it might be a bigger deal. Maybe you could tax such vehicles at the point of sale, but considering there are good reasons to encourage sale of those vehicles that also seems like a bad idea.
I would disagree, if for no other reason than I'm fully aware of the scope of data being collected, roadside, from vehicles right now as well as the data collection opportunities currently being explored & developed.
Ok, but you want to sell people on this? I don't. A gas tax is the only tax that routinely draws over 50 percent public support in polling. Imagine if Obama said tomorrow "OK, we're gonna start tracking your miles driven and taxing you on that."
As I've said, that's been the sticking point for implementation of a use tax, all along.
But as I've also said, it's not like there's no precedent. The IRS collects a great deal of data that would, at a high level, be considered "personal and private". USDOT and FHA have been working on this for years. It will happen.
For once, there is no ideological sticking point here. I agree a use tax is probably better way of fairly taxing people for the impacts of driving, but the golden opportunity to raise the gas tax NOW, with a minimum of fuss, leads me to favor it in the short term. The mechanism is already in place, the public is mostly willing, and the need is very real.
If you want to pay more taxes just cross over the Outerbridge and you can pay the additional 40 cents per gallon to NY. However, first you may have to pay the $16 toll and second you'll have to endure the potholed roads that never seem to get fixed. And, you'll also have to pump your own gas. Glad we're paying that additional 40 cents per gallon for transportation projects.
Is "another recession/depression" Trumpie talk for lowest unemployment in decades, strongest dollar in years, and being one of the only major economies in the world to NOT be in a recession right now?
Obama could only dream of doing damage to the defecit the last Republican did. Instead, he fixed it, while Republicans did nothing except promise to make him a one term President- which thankfully, they failed at that, like they do at most everything besides funding terrorists and inciting racial hatred.
I credit him for saving the region from the Dakotas through Louisiana from an environmental catastrophe that Republicans claimed was the only way to get gas below $2.50.
I credit him for saving the country from recession and actually getting people behind the wheel on the way to work and vacation.
I credit him for taking stands against countries like Venezuela, Iran, and Russia which pushed their economies to the brink and brought prices down.
I credit him for making the US one of the few major economies not in recession right now with a dollar strong enough to keep prices down.
And I credit him for not being a Newt or Romney and crowing otherwise.
Move to Ca. The evil do'ers here don't allow it's citizens to reap the benefits of real supply and demand. #criminal
But much as Democrats blamed Bush for the ongoing troubles of the Obama administration, so too I think it's reasonable to admit that "Obama" isn't to blame for the fact that China's house of cards economy is crumbling and the OPEC nations are keeping prices artificially low so as to undercut the U.S. shale oil industry. Those things are not Obama accomplishments, they're simply coincidental.
Presidents take credit for positive things and blame others for problem areas.Nothing new because that is Politics 101.
He can't take all the credit. But if you compare his accomplishments to what Steven Harper left in Canada or Tony Abbot left in Australia, or to how he managed to pull us out of the recession while countries like France never left. Or the fact that sanctions and actions against Russia, Iran and Venezuela worked. Yeah, countries like Brazil or China have domestic issues but that isn't the whole story. The country is economically going to be left for the next President way better than it was found.
Sanctions against Iran did nothing. Let's get that on the table right now. And frankly, I'm not convinced that they did much to Russia, either, if you discount Putin's geopolitical uppityness.
As for France... They don't have much going for them. I think it's unreasonable to measure our economic potential against a country like France, which has basically zero manufacturing infrastructure and little ability to create wealth. I'm not disagreeing that we've done comparatively well in the last several years, but I think the apples have to be compared to apples. And maybe it's just national hubris, but I think we're the shiniest apple in the basket.
Iran's economy definitely went in the tank during the sanctions. Russia too.
You can compare us really to anyone at surviving the recession, other than Germany among major economies they all did not do as well. That is a testament to Obama, in significant part, as before he took over, that was not the case.
Completely disagree on Iran. Do some brush-up on their black market. You can make the argument that some things became more expensive, but the overall quality of life didn't much deteriorate. And they were able to unload their oil just fine, thanks.
As for Russia, their economy has at no point in recent memory not been a disaster. The outward perception of their economy varies with whatever artifice they contrive for its stabilization, but they suck, have always sucked, and will continue to suck.
