Article by Matt Vespa in Townhall
Oh Yes, There's a Tax Hike That Will Clobber Rural Americans in This Infrastructure Bill
It’s a bit of older news, but one that is still in the headlines given that this bill hasn’t passed yet. It’s still in the arena of debate on the Hill. Will it be passed? No one can say. We’re talking about the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Progressive Democrats are not for it—they want the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, also known as ‘human infrastructure,’ passed first. Both bills are terrible. The latter making the most of the Left’s goodie bag items. Moderate Democrats want the bipartisan package passed first, but even Speaker Pelosi says the reconciliation bill must first pass. That’s not going to happen because, in the Senate, Democrats cannot afford to lose a single vote. They’re down two with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).
The bipartisan infrastructure bill has over a dozen Senate Republicans backers. That bill can probably pass it’s just a silly debate over the timing and what’s on the docket first. This is all now backed up against a deadline over funding the government, which is set to shut down on September 30. We also need to raise the debt ceiling. We’re approaching ‘must-pass' territory here, though Democrats control Congress, so it’s really their government shutdown. We’ll see what happens. Yet, in that $1.2 trillion bill that has GOP support even though it adds $256 billion in deficit spending despite promises that it will be paid for—there’s a hidden tax that will slam rural Americans. It was reported back in August days before the collapse of Afghanistan (via Washington Times):
The White House’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package includes a pilot program for a national mile-driven tax, contradicting President Biden’s previous dismissal of the policy.
Tucked within the 2,702-page infrastructure bill is obscure language requiring the Department of Transportation to test the feasibility of taxing drivers for the number of miles they travel.
The tax would be broad enough to target any “passenger motor vehicles,” including light and medium-to-heavy duty trucks.”
[…]
“The objectives of the pilot program are to test the design, acceptance, implementation, and financial sustainability of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee, to address the need for additional revenue for surface transportation infrastructure and a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee,” the bill reads.
Energy experts, however, say a tax on the number of miles that individuals drive is regressive and unfairly targets rural and suburban residents.
It’s like that lyric in The Beatles’ song Taxman:
“If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
If you try to sit, sit, I'll tax your seat”
That’s what government does. We shouldn’t be shocked they’re trying to find new, cruel ways of screwing normal people out of their money. And the methods are always absurd. For a hot second, Congress mulled a tax on sugary sodas to pay for Obamacare, a clear sign that they didn’t know how to pay for this massive program.
With inflation rising, yeah—Congress would be fine putting trillions of more dollars on the credit card as economic growth gradually slows due to Biden’s abysmal economic agenda. But hey, this is what the people vote for supposedly—I hope you’re all happy.
