Penny wise, pound foolish.The degree to which the public and politicians are willing to go to avoid so much as a nickle per gallon increase in the gas tax is astounding.
San Francisco will vote soon on whether or not to fund a study looking at the feasibility of using GPS to track drivers and charge them by the mile. Plenty of other cities are looking at GPS tracking as well.
Forget the right to privacy or civil liberties issues. Just think about the staggering cost and complexity of rolling out a plan like this. But raise the gas tax (which hasn’t seen an increase since 1992 and people start screaming heresy! Un-American, downright communist.
The media and the politicians frame the debate into big spenders and tax cutters. One has to be right so the other must be wrong. That’s a false argument. It’s not about the size of the government but what kind of government we’re getting for our money. The well connected are getting rich off anti competitive crony capitalism, bank bailouts and a permanent welfare class of freeloaders. What the rest of us get: crumbling roads, an overstressed military, porous borders a terrible economy and a permanently hobbled construction industry.
We used to spend 6 percent of GDP on infrastructure. Now we spend less than 3 percent.
Grover Norquist is wrecking this country.
