The Democrats are hot on the trail of another crisis that they don’t want to let go to waste. You may have noticed a slew of stories about states implementing pilot programs or talking up the idea of charging a Vehicle Miles-Traveled Tax (VMT), a new tax based on how many miles we drive.
It’s nothing new to watch bureaucrats scrambling around trying to figure out how to squeeze more tax blood out of the rock of the American people, but this little scheme is about much more than money– it’s a pretext with which to monitor your travel, opening another door to controlling our movement.
The news coverage in general discusses how this idea is “growing in popularity” (it’s not), or how much better it would be than the gas tax (it’s not), and how it’s no big deal and you won’t even feel it (it is and boy, you will). Reports from the ‘conservative’ media have understandably focused on the tax aspect which itself should make this a non-starter. Yet, it is especially concerning that the coverage has rarely glanced at how this new tax would require the government knowing all the details of your movement in your car or truck.
This new little scheme about taxing us per mile is outrageous, but they say we have to do it because a crisis is looming for the Highway Trust Fund. You see, all of the work to create fuel efficiency, and allegedly due to the tiny percentage of people who are now driving electronic vehicles, the tax revenue that comes in from the gas taxes is beginning to slow down.
Currently three states– Oregon, Utah, and Virginia, have implemented “Road usage charges.” Hawaii is set to become the fourth.
According to Americans for Tax Reform the VMT became a federal darling with Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill which throws $75 million in grants to state local and regional transportation departments to set up pilot programs, and it spends $50 million creating a national VMT pilot program.
If you think this is going to be a self-reporting type of situation, think again. The ATR notes specifically that “the bill lays out the various ‘vehicle-miles- traveled-collection tools’ that would be used by the federal government to track drivers. These tools include third-party onboard diagnostic devices (GPS tracking devices), smart phone apps, data from auto makers and data obtained by car insurance companies.”
It’s arguable that the specifics were in the bill because that is really the issue here. This is codifying having hardware and computers and satellites tracking the movement of average Americans. This is impossible using the basic gas tax. It also inculcates Americans, at least that’s what they hope, with the idea that the federal government has an overriding interest in knowing where you’re driving and how much you’re driving because of the infrastructure crisis, and eventually they’ll weave climate change into the emergency need to stalk you. If they convince the majority of Americans that this must be done, then we will indeed eventually bow our heads and get on our knees when they tell us when we can drive and how far.
This fits within the “equity” disaster brought by the Marxists leading this country. In fact, Biden’s bill also created a federal advisory board to be stacked with special interest groups lobbyists and woke activists. This new advisory board specifically requires including “advocacy groups focused on equity.” That means leftist activist groups. This is another woke dive-bombing on American freedom in general.
What the government is doing now is meant simply to nudge us into accepting this power grab pretext. Fox News quoted a man called Doug Shinkle, saying the “transportation program Director at the nonpartisan national conference of state legislatures, predicts that after some 20 years of anticipation more than a decade of pilot projects and years of voluntary participation, making programs mandatory is the next logical step. ‘The impetus at this point is less about collecting revenue then about establishing the systems, working out the kinks, getting the public comfortable with it…'”
I wonder if Doug got in trouble for saying the quiet thing out loud?
Tracking our every move isn’t a new dream for the bureaucratic state; the potential of COVID-19 brought the obsession back into the open. The Center Square reported that late last year at the G20 meeting President Joe Biden signed a declaration agreeing to adopt vaccine passports to “facilitate” all international travel. And never forget the effort to nudge us into accepting “contact tracing”massive surveillance in the name of stopping COVID. The good news is, we said no, because of trust issues. But that was a voluntary, opt-in scenario. The lesson the government learned was to make their stalking mandatory.
Meanwhile, while the insatiable federal government plots on how they can tax money out of people combined with a pretext of controlling our lives, the money the government loses track of is incomprehensible. Just this week the Small Business Administration watchdog revealed that more than $200 billion of COVID relief funds went to fraudsters.
On lost tax payer money in general, in April CNBC reported, “Improper payments, which refer to payments that are made incorrectly by the government, cost the U.S. $247 billion in 2022, according to the Government Accountability Office. The U.S. government has lost almost $2.4 trillion in simple payment errors over the last two decades, by GAO estimates. “’The government has just lost, as if you dropped it on the sidewalk, trillions and trillions of dollars over the last few decades,’ said Richard Stern, a budget and spending expert from the Heritage Foundation. ‘That is money that was stolen from hardworking Americans to just simply get wasted.’”
Billions here, trillions there… all lost. But they insist they need to track every move we make in order to avert a new tax crisis that just happens to involve installing movement trackers in our cars. Now is the time to remember First Lady Nancy Reagan’s rallying cry—Just Say No. Again and again and again.
Does anyone besides me HATE the anti American democraps as much as I do?
In case you haven’t noticed, Google, cellphone companies and car insurance companies already track our every move. These companies are typically all too eager to comply with governments’ “requests” for sharing such information. Big Brother is watching us.
For starters, I will NEVER drive an electric car. This is just another way to gouge us for more $$$ and to control us. Newscum is already a control freak and I’m sure he’s at the top of the list to do this in CA. We already have the highest gas tax in the nation but that doesn’t satisfy the POS.
If it were as simple as making up the difference on lost gasoline tax revenue from electric cars then just charge the electric car owners a mileage tax. But it’s not the revenue from gas taxes. States raise gas taxes all of the time. It’s government control over us and the loss of our freedoms. Enough is enough already! If the government needs more money than they should be careful not to waste the taxpayers money through bureaucratic losses due to poor management and oversight.
Going faster and faster to communism
i agree that EV’s should have some kind of method charged to those who own these cars to pay their fair share of a road maintenance tax
I already pay an annual $50 electric/hybrid fee when renewing my registration on my hybrid. This is in Indiana.
I have never seen this article before but I think Tammy Bruce is phenominal. I just want you to know that I was not allowed to vote as it said I had already voted.So I guess this is another glitch that AMAC IT is still working on? Or am I to be sabotaged by you AMAC? Thank you, Carol PS At least we are allowed to vote again. When I wrote the first time I was really frustrated that I could not even vote!
Another way for the DC Marxists to reach into every facit of our lives!! There is nothing they won’t do to conrol us. As I heard Mark Levin say today, these Democrats know they will not take u over by a revulotion so they are worming themselves into every part of our lives. Trying to change our speech, teaching explicit sex in our elementary schools, trying to wipe out Christianity and ruining our ecomony by shutting down fossil fuel use. They not only want to ban gas stoves, now they want to make pizzaerias stop using coal or wood ovens. We must find a way to stop them!! They are evil.
What the h…does this mean “You are not allowed to vote on this comment,” is AMAC shooting for Uber Google now and has joined the hobby commie censors?
How about a syllables per month tax exclusively on members of the Democrat left? Any time they open their mouths it infringes upon everyone else’s rights in our country!
Leave us alone already, there are some of us that can’t be controlled & will fight tooth and nail!! No more taxes stop it!!
That is for electric cars; everybody will pay that way when we go all-electric. The method may suck, but with no gas tax to pay for the roads, there is not much choice unless done from the general funds, which will also raise taxes.
The people who will get hit the worst are middle to lower income who work such jobs as house repairs, etc. Shame on our government.
It is okay to tax the electric vehicles as they do not pay tax at the pump like those of us who drive gasoline vehicles. It would be fair that way but not to double tax those of us driving gas vehicles.
The trillions of dollars of our tax money wasn’t lost, it simply ended up in the pockets of corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle.
This is about more than road maintenance. The rate will be based on EVs. Fossil fuel will be more. There will have to be a way to track mileage. After that there will be a basic mileage allowance for fossil fueled vehicles. You will then have to purchase additional miles. Think of it like the carbon tax. Insidious to say the least.
We will all soon be slaves to the Marxist leftist elites so they can control our movements, what we have to spend,and what we eat & drink. Total control.STOP WORKING GRAB YOU ARMS WHILE YOU STILL HAVE THEM, AND TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK BY FORCE. EVERYWHERE DO THIS IN EVERY DEMOCRAT HELD STATE!!!!!!!!! DO IT NOW, NOW, NOW,NOW
If this applies to electric vehicles only, I have no problem……I will never own one.
Going to impact:
Uber, Lyft
taxi drivers
Truckers
Buses
Minimum aside Joe & Jane worker & expand even more Remote work.
Fjb, fjb, fjb.
Democrats always have to live with unintended consequences. This happens to them all the time we never thought about that maybe that will be a problem. They get rid of gas powered cars and get high mileage cars and all sudden you don’t have the tax revenue from the gas tax. Geez we never thought about that. One big component of all this is they want to regulate when and where are you drive. Their ultimate goal is total control of the population. Marxism by a different name. The Democrat Party needs to be classified as a domestic terrorist group
Nevada is turning into a Cali suburb: I already have to put mileage on my registration renewal here in Nevada and paying $4.27/gallon at cheapest gas station (50 cents more than neighboring counties). Its all to price us out of movement like they tax smokers out of smoking and meat eaters from buying steak by making it too expensive. I can see how ppl won’t vote Trump but my Q is: “who votes for this $hit?” I mean do they wake up and decide they have too much money and freedom so vote Democrat?
The Obama and Biden infrastructure bills were actually for the democrat party infrastructure.
They might as well just lock us into an ankle bracelet and be done with it.
From the bag tax, rain tax, extra fees for renting a hotel room, gas tax, tire disposal tax, death tax, dump fees…and all the other ways they devised to get hold of our money, they’ve got us coming and going. What’s more frightening, though, is their desire to track every movement and every financial transaction we make on this earth. I divorced a man who wanted me to do the same thing!
This is NOT what freedom looks like.
If the government is replacing one tax with another they already know it’s going to bring in more money. That’s why they want the new tax. Folks that vote for democrats obviosusly have more loyalty to the party then they have common sense. Once a tax is started it never goes down. Listen people, you got to tell the government to start SPENDING LESS.They are destroying the middle class, you know, they are the people who work each day and pay their bills instead of sponging off the government which takes from the working and gives it away so they look compassionate.
Make us entirely dependent on the government by taxing us to death. Next we will have to present our papers to travel anywhere. Remind you of Nazi Germany? Keep voting for the RINO’s and the tax and spend democrats.
so tired of the dumos ridiculous tax this and that scheme – if they had any brains they would learn how to handle finances. why should we good hard working Americans have to pay for their mistakes. we have the illegals here and we the good people will be paying for them. a waste of good money
Why is this application not allowing me OR stating that I have already voted on comments for which I haven’t???
This is one tax I will refuse to pay, Period. And how in the world will they enforce this insane tax? Are they going to make you voluntarily report your miles? Again, I will refuse to do it. End of story!
The federal government is BROKEN and incapable of fixing itself. They don’t spend the gas tax on the highways-just like the Social Security Lock Box that money goes to the general revenue fund and Congress just spends it where they want. Most of us drive more of our miles on local streets and state highways we pay the state or city to maintain yet we pay a federal tax on gas and they lose the money all the time, not just in one agency but across all of them. The federal government is a jack of all trades and a master of none when it comes to money and the states already have the agencies now used for compliance to actually take the power from the federal government and change the mission of the agencies from compliance to action in the state for the people. We have to call an Article V convention and remove power from DC that they abuse and that they never had the authority for and we have to do it NOW! conventionofstates(dot)com
My new f250 reports data back to Dearborn, hourly, daily, I don’t know…but I’ll have to put a tin hat over the satellite antenna ( and never take it off!)!
To paraphrase someone much wiser than I, “This government does not have a revue problem, it has a spending problem.”
A great idea as long as it is only charged to EV’s owners. Everyone else is already paying for the roads through the gas tax.
What about a tax gas on airplanes, like Air Force One and the Climate Czars Plane and the money comes out of Biden’s and Kerry’s pocket ..Not necessary to make all those trips on it.
Now I remember why I switched from Democrat to Republican.
This is worse than having both the 1st and 2nd Amendments revoked. American freedom of mobility is just, well, AMERICAN!
Vehicles, operators, drivers, driving are commerce on the public road. That is what the states can regulate. They will do all sorts of things to get in the record those words such as ask for you to turn over you drivers license first thing. Then they can apply all the statutes to you that deal with “driving”. Notice how they do not define those words in state statutes but just say things like “operating” is the same as “driving” and “driving” is the same as “operating”. No definition because they do not want someone to catch on to the facts.
This tax will hit the lower and middle class much harder than the wealthy. In Northern California there are thousands of people who work in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley but live in towns like Patterson, Tracy, etc. because they can’t afford a house near their place of employment. Many commute more than 100 miles round trip each work day. Leave it to the Democrats to find another way to stick it to the working class.
I believe this is a two-part issue. First electric vehicle at this time pay no highway tax, they are getting a free ride to use roads. A mile charge if good. States that have emission testing could include those vehicles and charge accordingly since mileage is sent to the state. The states that do not can easily have those vehicle owner report. To keep them on the up just have those states use Carfax. Second, once they start paying highway tax per mile then the federal and state tax for fuel should be lower. Let’s start thinking outside the box.
How can an insurance company track you? Don’t get that.
I will never agree to that!!
There is nothing fair about this tax!!! I don’t think it’s about tracking us as much as it is about trying to control us!! I do think this will hit the wrong people, the ones that Joe and Democrats claim to want to help!! But every time Joe says he is going to help, I feel like I need to put a lock on my bank account because that usually means that they are coming for more of my money!!! And I thought there was some promise from Joe, himself, about no new taxes for anyone who makes under $400k!!! I don’t think he realizes what he is doing to us or he and Democrats just don’t care!!!
government needs to do the following: 1. Stay in its constitutionally mandated lane and stop sticking its nose in every aspect of our lives. 2. STOP WASTING OUR HARD-EARNED MONEY ON RIDICULOUS BOONDOGGLES SUCH AS THE GREEN NEW DEAL! and 3. we need to do an audit of the Highway Trust Fund (along with every other government program and agency) to find out where our tax dollars really went. If they expect me to believe that the only reason why the highway trust fund is running out of money is because it’s getting less money because of increased fuel standards, they’re going to be very disappointed.
Another “bend over and grab your heels” brain fart idea as the government reaches further into your pocket to extract its tribute, most of which will go toward worthless programs that fritter away our treasure.
Ultimately, the Federal income tax Form 1040 will be simplified to a single page. It will ask: How Much did you earn? Send it all in to Uncle Sam.
For decades our car insurance company has inquired at every 6 month policy renewal , “ how many miles do you drive each day.”? Told that would help determine our premium. More miles , higher premium. Insurance companies would love to have a device to track your mileage.
Tracking our own government is probably impossible. The whole thing is impossible.
Guess I’ll become more healthy and walk more places. Oh wait, there could come a sidewalk tax!
The government needs to live within its means and stop using the people as their way to extract more money so they can spend more money.
All we need to do is say “no” don’t install it. Don’t let them install it.
Move out of states that infringe peoples rights. Find out what those states produce and boycott them. Unfortunately some of this requires someone with resources to get us that info, and finding such a person is rare. Most just point out the prob. then say “good luck” “vote right”. The luck isn’t there and voting right isn’t working soooo.
Assuming the supposed patriots who have the resources NEVER step up (and why would we assume otherwise based on recent history). The left won’t b stopped. Might as well stop complaining.
User fees are good, the problem is how it could be implemented. I like the idea of registration fees based on the mileage rating of the vehicle you drive, with higher mileage cars paying higher registration fees. That way, the hybrids and EVs that are paying no gas tax will pay for the driving on our highways that they have been doing for free. And in many cases, have been subsidized with tax payers money! Also, that will hit the expensive EVs more, that few of us normal people can afford.