A Tax, Not A Tax

As the Sunday morning news talk shows got warmed up, the topic at hand this week was the SCOTUS ruling on Obamacare.

With that ruling, the justices, 7 to 2, called the mandate unconstitutional under the commerce clause, but by a 5-4 ruling stuck the mandate under the taxation power and ruled it constitutional. Systematically changing the law. 

The wording in HR3590, the bill that became law, was re-written from HR3200 to remove the word "tax penalty" and restated it as penalty, removing the word tax, so as not to appear to be raising taxes on anyone making under their $250K threshold.

Chief Justice Roberts was the deciding factor in Obamacare mandate and ruled it constitutional under the powers of congress to lay and collect taxes and the penalty IS a tax.

Now the Republicans are having at Obama for raising taxes on anyone making less then $250K, as he promised he would not do, during the run up to the 2008 election.

The left and Democrats are hailing Roberts as a hero that saved a law that takes control over a private sector of our economy (socialism). This is the same Justice Roberts who ruled in the Citizen United case that Unions and Corporation have a right to freedom of speech and with that ruling it infuriated the liberals-progressives. But now he's their hero and they are loving it. Go figure.

On Fox News today, the Whitehouse Chief of Staff, Jack Lew, continued to regurgitate the Obama Whitehouse that the "penalty" was not a tax, even though the supreme court ruled it as such.

Chris Wallace quickly dissented.

Mr Lew, Tax= A sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc. and to demand a tax from a person, business, etc. to demand a tax in consideration of the possession or occurrence of (income, goods, sales, etc.), usually in proportion to the value of money involved.

The Whitehouse now thinks it can change the meaning of "Tax" But, that doesn't surprise this blogger!

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