DoT Secretary Pete Buttigieg Floats a 'Mileage' Tax To Pay For Dems' Infrastructure Dreams

Brittany M. Hughes | March 26, 2021
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Question: What happens when you put Pee Wee Herman in charge of an entire nation’s transportation infrastructure?

Answer: You get stupid crap like this.

Pete Buttigieg, the embattled mayor-turned-failed presidential candidate-turned-somehow Biden’s Secretary of the Department of Transportation, is now suggesting we tax drivers by the mile to help fund Congress’ proposed multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure overhaul, proving he must have gotten his economics degree from the same place as AOC.

Responding to questions over whether the Biden administration is considering a "mileage-based tax" to pay for the plan, Buttigieg answered that "could be a way to do it."

So I think that shows a lot of promise,” he said. “If we believe in that so-called ‘user-pays’ principle, the idea that part of how we pay for roads is you pay based on how much you drive. Gas tax used to be the obvious way to do it, [but] it’s not anymore. So a so-called ‘vehicle miles traveled’ tax or a mileage tax, whatever you want to call it, could be a way to do it.”
 


The administration is reportedly looking at a mileage tax to help pay for their $3-4 trillion transportation plan, and in part to make up for the increasing number of electric vehicle drivers who aren't paying the gas tax that would help fund it.

But, as with so may oversimplified Democrat "solutions," a mileage tax levied on drivers for the amount of distance they actually travel on the pavement is an obtuse way of looking at who actually benefits from the country’s taxpayer-funded interstate and roads system. Not only does it penalize drivers and disproportionately affect commuters and vehicle-based employees like Uber drivers, housekeepers and delivery workers, it also puts a wildly oversimplified definition on who “benefits” from roads. While a person driving 15 miles to work would be forced to pay a mileage tax based on how much they’re actually on the road, non-drivers in urban areas like New York City wouldn’t, while still benefiting from transportation services like shipping, food delivery, and all the goods and services that have to be trucked in to grocery stores and retail establishments.

The only sensible way to offset the costs that would now be born by drivers, shipping and trucking companies, and the gamut of delivery services would be to hike up the cost of goods or add a transportation fee, thus passing those increases on to the customer – on top of the mileage tax many of us would already be paying.

So much for Biden’s promise not to hike up taxes on the middle class.

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