WASHINGTON – A House committee chairman said Tuesday that he wants Congress to enact a mileage-based tax on cars and trucks to pay for highway programs now rather than wait years to test the idea.
Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said he believes the technology exists to implement a mileage tax. He said he sees no point in waiting years for the results of pilot programs since such a tax system is inevitable as federal gasoline tax revenues decline.
"Why do we need a pilot program? Why don't we just phase it in?" said Oberstar, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman. Oberstar is drafting a six-year transportation bill to fund highway and transit programs that is expected to total around a half trillion dollars.
This guy is truly a piece of work to basically throw all good sense to the wind and suggest just implementing a program with no real idea of its possible impacts, no studies to see where pitfalls could wait, etc.
"I'm at a point of impatience with more studies," Oberstar said
I'm sorry but when you decided that studies are no longer necessary and figure its better to just plow ahead blindly I think its time you get removed from Congress via a firm kick to the ass. Every time I hear a Congressman talk about how they don't feel like going through the steps necessary to make sure things work properly it makes me want to scream, if these guys worked in IT their networks would explode on a weekly basis when they rolled out Microsoft patches without testing them.
Add to this whole sorry affair the fact that the Democrats are so close to being able to fight off attempts at a filibuster thanks to gaining a former Republican member of Congress and you can believe that this could become a reality as there is absolutely nothing in their way once they have Congress completely under their control. So much for fucking checks and balances huh?
