tax per mile

Well Said and Perfect.

 

Toll roads are a state by state matter, but IMHO are rarely a good idea for the population for the state. In my state they are putting in toll roads because they do not want to raise our relatively low gas tax. Profits go to a Spanish corporation that runs the ones by me, but there are not likely to be many profits. We do need these new roads, but the private partnership is a failure of state politics.
State Gasoline Tax Rates, as of January 1, 2012 | Tax Foundation
Alaska takes 8 cents/gallon all the way up to NY taking 49 cents a gallon. Oregon, the subject of this tax, takes 31 cents per gallon. The hundred dollars is about 322 gallons per year that they will charge EVs. That really is not that onerous, but seems counter productive. Over 10 years though the federal subsidy of $7500 - the state fee of $1000, still leaves the 16 kwh + bev a $6500 subsidy.

On the federal gas tax, Reagan, HW Bush, and Clinton raised it. They have not been raised since 1993, but the cost of road maintenance has had inflation. Congress has simply added what it spends on these roads to the deficit. Raising it 12 cents/gallon would make up for inflation.

Medicare pays out about twice as much as it takes in per person. It will be bankrupt soon, if costs are not cut and/or revenue is not increased. The way it is funded is payroll tax. That tax is more destructive to economic growth than gas taxes. raising oil taxes, and reducing the payroll tax, say on the first $50K in salary, instead of raising payroll taxes may be better economically for the country.

 

Medicare is the sacred cow. The last thing you want to do is raise problems for retired people. A sign of a modern society is how it treats it's elderly.

Much of taxes is not raising taxes but managing what you already have.

 

While I agree that we should not kill medicare, it does take in about half as much per person as it spends. Politicians are brutally dishonest when they say we can't touch it, and it pays for itself. It does not, and the longer we wait to fix it, the more in debt it becomes. That means you need to raise taxes and/or cut expenses. Medical costs are increasing greater than inflation. We need to be honest about it not being a self funded medical insurance program.

The ideas to fix it are

A) raise taxes. This can be done by raising the payroll tax rate, but that is destructive to the economy. The cap on salery can be raised, which is a good idea, but people have to first admit its not simply insurance to have wealthier people pay more. Funds can come from outside of the payroll tax, from the general fund or an energy tax.

B) Means test, again this requires the government to admit it isn't simply insurance. Make wealthier people pay a higher deductable. They can fill this in with supplemental insurance either sold by the government or private firms. Reward doctors based on quality of care instead of simply quantity of care.

Policy Basics: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go? — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Over two thirds of government spending is Medicare/Medicaid, social security, defense and interest on the debt. These programs are all growing. Government either needs to be cut these three major programs or more revenue brought in.

 

I have a better idea. Why do we have military bases in Europe? Germany is not a threat. We built bases throughout Europe. Russia can be problametic but do we need that type of military today. The USA spends way to much money on things that may have been important in 1940 but not that important today. Why do we deliver mail on Saturdays? Why not deliver mail on Monday's Wednesdays and Fridays. Medicare is needed since old peope need medical insurance. I cannot see taking that away. Why do we give money to Egypt or Pakistan? Start to reduce and eliminate foreign aid. Why not allow American corporations to send foreign profits to American soil if they create jobs? Why do I have a federal government, a state government, a county government, and a city government? That sounds like plenty of duplication of effort.

 

Funny how a young man and a wealthy man are eager to cut the programs they do not need today. So your answer is to starve the Grandma's. I say leave social security alone. It is solvent today. Medicare we can leave that alone also but tryandbmanage expenses. There are other parts of gov that can be reduced. Privatize parks. Stop aid to foreign governments, etc.

 

Keep in mind the young man will have no Medicare and the wealthy man will have no wealth if the government continues on the present course. Not needing it today does not preclude doing something to make sure it is there tomorrow (when it is needed).

I don't see anything that can be construed as wanting to ".....starve the Grandma's". I can see rational proposals of something to address the exponential increases in cost coming down the pike. That does not mean you should agree, but I cannot figure out what caused the strong reaction.

 

Social security is solvent. It requires no tweaks. To think anything else is inaccurate. Medicare if it stops overpaying and fraud and reduces admin costs will be OK. That is a rational proposal. The discussion should be other areas of gov that are wasteful.

 

Europe had a lead in 1980 because its gasoline tax in 1980 was an even "crazier" level relative to US gasoline taxes in 1980 than it is today.

Anyone looking at results, Europe's 50% greater energy efficiency per capita or per GDP, would objectively describe the gasoline taxes as logical and effective, oil company PR media such as Forbes would describe it as crazy. Other consider the $300B per year lost to oil import deficits, $500B spent on military to fight oil wars in the Middle East and the life threatening global warming greenhouse gases created by US energy inefficiency as being the real crazy.

 

Well, I can see you can not read a graph, so we will have to just agree to disagree.

Why don't you go to your neighborhood bar and suggest that the only reason not to raise the gas tax to 150% - the level in england, is because of oil company propaganda. You may find that most people would not like to add 3% to unemployment, no matter what you think is crazy.

 

I don't think very many are arguing to cut grandma's medicare. That is a lie from operatives in the left wing that believe we can have a huge expensive program and not pay for it.

Aid to foreign governments is a tiny part of the budget. Medicare is $523 B in 2013, and growing fast. Again for each person it takes in half as much as it pays out. You can take money from the general fund, but here the biggest thing is the military, and it seems the same people saying you can't raise taxes are saying you can't cut the $851 B military budget. Privatising parks would do nothing to stop the long run deficits medicare is running. Those politicians that say we can just leave medicare alone are lieing. It will explode well before the young paying into it see a dime.

So no, stop with the lies. I never said starve grandma, mine are both dead, but my mom could be means tested to have higher deductibles.. Taxes need to go up to support the bankrupt program if cuts are not made.


+1

The politicians lie, and constituents believe there is free money in medicare.

 

I basically agree about Social Security. There are certainly needs to adjust it as demographics change over the years, but I don't see a strong case for significant overhaul ever gaining enough political momentum to change it. It never was in the discussion.

Medicare is fundamentally flawed economically. Both the taxpayer and patients are the losers. The whole economic model is setup to transfer money from the taxpayer to the high profit medical provisioning (not medical care) industry with the government and patient just being middlemen in this huge transfer. Most patients are never informed of the final financial transaction values involved, much less care.

Quality and efficiency of care distract from profits. Volume of care maximizes profits. A patient's health is not a major factor to anyone in this chain other than a few doctors that go against the grain and a few patients who realize this & take control of their medical decisions. The more drugs, procedures, and examinations that a patient can be legally administered, the more financing the government can be required to provide. Hopefully you can connect the dots. You certainly (and correctly) point out that government is a very poor steward of money in all other cases.

No amount of "fraud prosecution" nor "cost containment" will stop a flawed economic system. For every government lawyer trying to restrict excessive procedures, there are 100s of health care administrators working intensely to maximize the drugs, procedures, and examinations that can be supported by "Medicare". The old adage "Follow the Money" should be understood completely here.

 

We cannot take health insurance from older retired people. We have to make it work. Cuts can be made elsewhere.

 

Nothing to agree or disagree about. Just cold hard facts. Europe is 50% more energy efficient than US. Key part of EU policy to achieve that increased energy efficiency is the gasoline tax.

We see effect of gasoline prices in US, when they spike small efficient car sales spike.

People opposed to gasoline tax do on ideological grounds vs. technical or economic factual reasons. Those are clear.

 

Heard on CNBC this AM that many will see a lower net pay on the first pay period in January. Evidently the temporary FICA tax lowering expired. The reporter said a single employee making $60,000 a year will see $96 less take home pay per month.

It would have been easier to keep the taxes lower and raise the Ceiling above $113,000 so the little guy has a higher take home pay but it seems many of our Politicians want to protect high income earners because they make large Political contributions.



FICA's Bite: Wages Subject to Social Security Tax to Increase in 2013

 

And it would also affect their income since that is where they are at. I saw a pie chart the other day, it compared the percent of over all earners to congress, I think it was like 50% of congress is in the 1% top earners. Just like they are exempt from Obamacare. Do we really need these people running the country? Hell no!

BTW If we went to war over oil, where is it?