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Thread: Trump considers more than doubling federal gas tax

  1. #1

    Exclamation Trump considers more than doubling federal gas tax

    Orange Mordita

    https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2019...comment-704979

    By eric - April 15, 2019

    Trump rode a wave of average man outrage into the Oval Office.

    But the Orange Man could be swept out of it just as easily if he pursues what he has hinted at doing – raise the federal tax on gas.

    Not by a little bit, either.

    Nothing could be more politically suicidal. Besides which, it is just a terrible idea. More money to Uncle means, inevitably, less freedom for us. More ways to extort the states to impose more freedom-stifling outrages – everything from (historically) dumbed-down DUI standards – and the vile East German-style checkpoints to go with – as well as “buckle up” laws and dumbed-down speed limit regimes.

    Giving Uncle more money is – as the saying goes – like giving an idiot child a machine gun. Trump ought to know this. Don’t feed the Swamp Thing.

    People – his supporters, at any rate – never bought into the confected “collusion” narrative. They will abandon him to the wolves if he hits them with an increase in what is already the most obnoxiously regressive (to use a favorite word of “progressives,” as wealth-snatching leftists like to style themselves) taxes in existence.

    The federal tax is currently 18 cents per gallon – and states pile on an average of 34 cents in addition. Some even more. That’s 52 cents in overt taxes per gallon – and doesn’t count the hidden taxes per gallon, which includes the cost of the rent-seeking “renewable fuels” (ethanol) mandate, which forces us to subsidize the corn lobby and costs us again – in the form of reduced miles-per-gallon, since a gallon of ethanol-adulterated “gas” – it’s typically 10 percent ethanol in most parts of the country – will not take you as far as a gallon of 100 proof gasoline.

    But leave that aside for the moment.

    The federal/state gas tax mordita works out to about 25 percent of the cost of each gallon, despicably folded into the cost of each gallon rather than added in, after the fact – as other taxes on things we buy usually are. This is done to hide the cost of the tax – and shift the anger away from the busybodies and control freaks who constitute “the government” and direct it toward the Evil Oil Companies.

    They are To Blame.

    Yet – unlike busybodies and control freaks who constitute “the government” – and tax us until our hides bleed – “Big Oil” provides us with a useful product most of us appreciate and on which it makes very little profit, at least relative to the government.

    The net profit margin on a gallon of gas is about 19 cents, with about 3-5 cents of that going to the retailer (i.e., the gas station) so about 15 cents goes into the pockets of “Big Oil.”

    Which, let’s remember, is providing something useful, that people freely buy.

    Unlike the government – which practices extortion and sometimes returns a pittance of what it takes by force in the form of benefits conferred upon some people – usually those who didn’t pay for them.

    A 25 percent bite used to be considered usurious – and still is, only it’s legal now.

    Well, the Orange Man has floated the idea of raising the mordita by another 25 cents – more than doubling the federal tax and bringing the total tax to a ruinous 75 cents-plus per gallon.


    Which would also be ruinous to his 2020 re-election campaign, as well as to the economy his policies have helped to partially resuscitate. OM’s stated reason is to fund rebuilding of admittedly decaying infrastructure and to build more.

    But bankrupting the people isn’t the way to do it – unless the object of the exercise is beautifully paved and very empty highways, on the North Korean model.

    Trump – who is a billionaire – may not appreciate how much damage a doubling of gas taxation will do to the already precarious finances of people who aren’t even hundred-thousand-aires. People whose finances are precarious because of the serial tax-rape they endure on every dollar they earn before they even open the fuel door of their vehicle.

    Federal and state taxes on income. Plus the Socialist Insecurity and Medicare mordita. Now Obamacare on top of that. Then the rent-in-perpetuity on their homes, even if long ago paid for. The Marxist property tax recommended by the bearded one himself. To make “owning” property an impossibility.

    Together, these consume probably half or more of every dollar earned by most wage-slaves. It doesn’t leave much margin for a doubled gas tax, which will increase the tax they pay to about 40 percent of the cost of each gallon.

    This would shame most loan sharks; not even the mafia is this cruel.

    Besides, there is a much better way to fund admittedly needed infrastructure. A way that won’t stick it to the average wage-slave.

    And Trump has already indicated he is favorably inclined.

    That way is to divert the billions in electric car subsidies to fund roads and so forth. To stop lining the pockets of billionaires like Elon Musk at the expense of tens of millions of thousand-aires, in order to prop up his perpetually sickly “business” – which is nothing more than a fadish rent-seeking scam.

    The federal EV subsidy alone is estimated at between $15-20 billion, plus another $400 million or so at the state level. This could buy a lot of infrastructure, without imposing any new taxes on hard-pressed Americans.

    And it would get the potholes fixed without costing the Orange Man re-election.

    He might want to consider it.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



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  3. #2
    It is looking more like he has no intention of being there for another 4 years and is doing what he can to ensure a Dem win. If so he should be primaried out but his hard core supporters will blindly support him no matter what he does.

  4. #3
    I don't think he will follow through on this one. Sounds more like it is just another idea he is floating to gauge reaction. His base would blow a gasket.

  5. #4
    Search "Trump considers" and you get a ton of ideas that went nowhere. For this one, I will wait until he actually starts doing something.

  6. #5
    I support tripling gas tax in states that care about climate change . Put it on the ballot in every state if it gets more than 50 percent raise it . Then eliminate Fed gas tax in the other states .
    Do something Danke

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by oyarde View Post
    I support tripling gas tax in states that care about climate change . Put it on the ballot in every state if it gets more than 50 percent raise it . Then eliminate Fed gas tax in the other states .
    I like it.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  8. #7
    People – his supporters, at any rate – never bought into the confected “collusion” narrative. They will abandon him to the wolves if he hits them with an increase in what is already the most obnoxiously regressive (to use a favorite word of “progressives,” as wealth-snatching leftists like to style themselves) taxes in existence.
    If the Trump supporters who frequent this website are representative, then Eric is wrong about this.

  9. #8
    This could be great for Elon Musk's Tesla's electric cars. This would also be another big win for Ivanka (who is being touted as a future President on Foxnews) wing on conservatives who was recently seen with Obama green jobs czar Vann Jones at CPAC 2019. As long as this won't be done as political favoritism/thank you to Elon for helping Israel's moon landing rocket, it could help green jobs and carry forward Vann Jones green energy mission.



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  11. #9
    Eventually it will become apparent to more of you why
    I'm done with this 3d chess blsht, and of course will never
    stop shaking my head at why Hillary is now viewed as a nice person,
    and Trump refused to see that she was indicted and prosecuted.

    Not happy with what I voted for, did not get what I voted for.

  12. #10
    Quadruple it, if it makes our roads better!!!
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
    - Kim Kardashian

    Donald Trump / Crenshaw 2024!!!!

    My pronouns are he/him/his

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by TheTexan View Post
    Quadruple it, if it makes our roads better!!!
    More expensive food tastes better. Plus the smaller packages make you feel less guilty when you eat the whole thing.

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by juleswin View Post
    Search "Trump considers" and you get a ton of ideas that went nowhere. For this one, I will wait until he actually starts doing something.
    Yep... It's fake news. Good catch.

    I am pretty confident Trump of all people would never do this.

  15. #13
    Infrastructure. Blatant socialist cronyism and redistribution of wealth. But they have been able to fool a lot of people with the latest catch phrase.

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    Infrastructure spending - Translation: US taxpayers foot the bill to repair infrastructure in the richest and most corrupt cities in America, because instead of maintaining their cities, the money all went to graft and corruption; ex: New York, Chicago, etc.
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.



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