Taxed By the Mile?

This is how we might have to get around this.

How would you like to be taxed by the mile? Maybe on top of the gas tax you pay for driving a vehicle?

That is an idea the Obama administration is kicking around with in a draft proposal in the offing.

As reported on The Hill, the way the plan would work, would be to require everyone to have a "tracking device" attached to their car to determine how many miles they have driven and payment would be taken once you filled up.
Now the article says “This is not an administration proposal.... this is not a bill supported by the administration.(???)... Does not represent the views of the president.”
Then why is the administration DRAFTING it?

The Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive.

The plan is a part of the administration's Transportation Opportunities Act, anundated draft of which was obtained this week by Transportation Weekly. 

The White House, however, said the bill is only an early draft that was not formally circulated within the administration.

“This is not an administration proposal," White House spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said. "This is not a bill supported by the administration. This was an early working draft proposal that was never formally circulated within the administration, does not taken into account the advice of the president’s senior advisers, economic team or Cabinet officials, and does not represent the views of the president.”

News of the draft follows a March Congressional Budget Office report that supported the idea of taxing drivers based on miles driven.

Among other things, CBO suggested that a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax could be tracked by installing electronic equipment on each car to determine how many miles were driven; payment could take place electronically at filling stations. 

The CBO report was requested by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who has proposed taxing cars by the mile as a way to increase federal highway revenues.

The proposal seems to follow up on that idea in section 2218 of the draft bill. That section would create, within the Federal Highway Administration, a Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office. It would be tasked with creating a "study framework that defines the functionality of a mileage-based user fee system and other systems."

Read it here