While former 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is not the leader we need at this time (or any time), he is also not the transportation secretary we need under the Biden Administration. During a series of rapid-fire questions on how to raise money to improve roads, Buttigieg agreed with CNBC anchor Kayla Tausche that he liked the idea of a mileage-based tax on a potential option for raising the necessary funds. Once the government’s hand is in your pocket, it really doesn’t come out.
“So, I think that shows a lot of promise. If we believe in that so-called user pays principle — the idea of part of how we pay for roads is you pay based on how much you drive — the gas tax used to be the obvious way to do it. It’s not anymore, so a so-called vehicle miles traveled tax, or mileage tax, whatever you want to call it, could be a way to do it,” Buttigieg said.
This is just another way for Democrats, who are completely out-of-touch with reality, to make things much worse than they actually are. Only the radical left would want to include an additional expense for anyone driving to get to work or school, particularly those who live in rural areas of the country. In addition, this impacts low-income Americans the most who already bear the highest commuting costs at any distance for work, as well as struggling to afford a car in the first place.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana also suggested that this particular infrastructure should be based on “the kind of investment that has a return on that investment,” adding that a mileage-based tax would be on how far a person drives, rather than how much gasoline their car consumes. This would drag owners of electric cars, which are supposedly ‘better for the climate,’ into paying the heavy tax rates as well.
Buttigieg adds that the Highway Trust Fund “can’t be the answer forever” as U.S citizens use less and less gas. “If there’s a way to do it that doesn’t increase the burden on the middle class, we can look at it. But if we do, we’ve got to recognize that’s still not going to be the long-term answer,” he said.
Mileage taxes have been implemented in states such as Oregon and Utah and have not taken off for a number of reasons. There have been privacy concerns regarding collecting data on how far a driver has traveled, disincentivized purchasing of fuel-efficient vehicles, and arguably unfair to anyone who doesn’t live in a city with good public transit.
Users lashed out at Buttigieg that he spent most of his presidential campaigning talking about how student debt cancellation would unfairly benefit rich kids but suggests a tax on people who can’t afford to live close to work. Others point out that this tax clearly favors wealthier people who can live in the cities they work in. Also, so much to anyone who works as an Uber driver.
Democrats continue to crumble and kill the middle-class average Americans with more absurd tax burdens. How about placing a heavier tax on private jet travel, which Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are so fond of? Remember when Bernie Sander’s team replaced a two-hour drive by flying three Gulfstream private jets from Charleston to Myrtle Beach prior to a Democratic primary? Tax that.
