The more I think about this.. the more I wonder.. aren't we already being taxed for our mileage with the federal tax money on each gallon.

The root of the problem is that the more efficient the vehicle the less taxes collected.. so this is getting ahead of that curve. So out of one side of this administration they are pushing to get more efficient vehicles to lessen the demand on oil.. but on the hand looking to recollect that tax dollar lost because we are using less.

Hmmm I wonder if all those stories about alternative fueled vehicles is really true and just squashed because of fear from lost tax revenue.. on top of the automakers and Big Oil pressure or manipulation?

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Yep. I was going to say this earlier.

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:face1:

Shawn, Shawn, Shawn.
What are you doing is reading / linking to that ass-clown website, newsmax.com.
This causes me great concern for your well-being, my friend


Newsmax.com actually makes Fox news look fair and balanced.
It is filled with neo-con twits and ass kissers.

Here are just some of their "contributors"..

David Limbaugh - brother of radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh.

Jackie Gingrich Cushman - her father, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

George F. Will - conservative newspaper columnist, journalist, an author, and a dick.


And some of their "priceless" jounalism.....

On September 29, 2009, NewsMax ran an article by John L. Perry titled Obama Risks a Domestic Military Intervention that suggested a military coup to "resolve the Obama problem.

NewsMax published an article claiming Hillary Clinton refused to meet with the Gold Star Mothers, a group of mothers of servicemen.
According to the Gold Star Mothers organization, this was false and "Senator Clinton greeted us graciously on Gold Star Mothers Sunday, 2005."


And the guy that wrote the above article, David A. Patten, is one of it's biggest asswipes there.

/knee jerk mode

The best tax is no tax at all.

/exit knee jerk mode

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I'm sure you're right. ::roll:
Yes Wade, you just got the condenscending eye roll. See I pay taxes so I can have highways to drive instead of riding a horse, and I want to have somewhere to lay my head, and have somebody to feed me, when I am no longer able to wipe my own ass.

I know you guys in the universities around the country are real smart with your pie graphs and theories and stuff; but maybe you'd like to take a stab at convincing me how in the hell we sustain the outstanding luxuries we currently enjoy in the decline of the10th Roman Empire without taxation. Just give me something logical and reasonable, and less than 500 words.

I had a guy tell me one time that we could do away with taxes and the goodness in people would come out and we would all take care of each other. I asked if he sold hallucianagines as well as used them.

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I don't really understand how the internet shopping hurt postage and the mail service. Since I started buying things online, I have things mailed to me a lot more. Don't they get that money for shipping and handling?

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You must be too young to know how to sit down and write a letter to someone, lick the envelope shut, put a stamp on, and then walk your candy ass down to the post office for their service of carrying that letter to it's destination? Now we just click send.

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(by the way, most of those guys in universities either think I'm a loon or would if they knew me 🙂 )

Taxes are necessary, ISTM, if -- and only if -- there are things that the government can do better than other people.

IMO the list of such things is small:

1. National defense. Which is not the same as being the world's policeman or being able to make war. And also not the same as protectionism for defense contractors. It's no accident that the twentieth century was the bloodiest century in human history.

2. Local roads. Perhaps also national highways, but that is a much, much harder thing to demonstrate. The best maintained highways tend to be toll roads, and there's no obvious government superiority in collecting tolls or entering into maintenance contracts.

3. Water and sewer service. Note though that this is another place where the government needed is local only.

4. Courts and contract enforcement. Mostly local/state as well. Federal needed only in *real* cases of interstate and foreign commerce (not any commerce, as the Supremes have made the law).

5. Payment of interest and principal on already incurred debt. Unfortunately.

I can't name a sixth.

With the exception of #5 (which, to my mind is an especially strong argument against government being better at much of anything involving the spending of money and resources), the taxes required for the rest are a fraction of the current tax burden.

The question is not what government currently does. The question is what government is better at doing.

And since the answer to that question is "not a heckuva lot," there's surprisingly little need for tax revenues either.

So while my initial statement was a bit of hyperbole (I did say it was "knee jerk", after all), it was only a bit.

Did I come in under 500 words?

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I go to an auto shop that isn't taxed** and I pay nickles to the dollars every one else pays at every other shop. Hmm.. Maybe taxes aren't our friends. =P

**: The shop is legitimate. It is on a Native American tribe land, thus is exempt from taxes. I didn't pay a cent of taxes towards labor. Only taxes I paid was on parts.

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I mail letters all of the time. I send letters to my Dad and Landlord and occasionally to pay a bill. That doesn't even remotely address my comment.

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