Guest Post by Eric Peters
Trump rode a wave of average man outrage into the Oval Office. But the Orange Man could be swept out of it just as easily if he pursues what he has hinted at doing – raise the federal tax on gas.
Not by a little bit, either.
Nothing could be more politically suicidal. Besides which, it is just a terrible idea. More money to Uncle means, inevitably, less freedom for us. More ways to extort the states to impose more freedom-stifling outrages – everything from (historically) dumbed-down DUI standards – and the vile East German-style checkpoints to go with – as well as “buckle up” laws and dumbed-down speed limit regimes.
Giving Uncle more money is – as the saying goes – like giving an idiot child a machine gun. Trump ought to know this. Don’t feed the Swamp Thing.
People – his supporters, at any rate – never bought into the confected “collusion” narrative. They will abandon him to the wolves if he hits them with an increase in what is already the most obnoxiously regressive (to use a favorite word of “progressives,” as wealth-snatching leftists like to style themselves) taxes in existence.
The federal tax is currently 18 cents per gallon – and states pile on an average of 34 cents in addition. Some even more. That’s 52 cents in overt taxes per gallon – and doesn’t count the hidden taxes per gallon, which includes the cost of the rent-seeking “renewable fuels” (ethanol) mandate, which forces us to subsidize the corn lobby and costs us again – in the form of reduced miles-per-gallon, since a gallon of ethanol-adulterated “gas” – it’s typically 10 percent ethanol in most parts of the country – will not take you as far as a gallon of 100 proof gasoline.
But leave that aside for the moment.
The federal/state gas tax mordita works out to about 25 percent of the cost of each gallon, despicably folded into the cost of each gallon rather than added in, after the fact – as other taxes on things we buy usually are. This is done to hide the cost of the tax – and shift the anger away from the busybodies and control freaks who constitute “the government” and direct it toward the Evil Oil Companies.
They are To Blame.
Yet – unlike busybodies and control freaks who constitute “the government” – and tax us until our hides bleed – “Big Oil” provides us with a useful product most of us appreciate and on which it makes very little profit, at least relative to the government.
The net profit margin on a gallon of gas is about 19 cents, with about 3-5 cents of that going to the retailer (i.e., the gas station) so about 15 cents goes into the pockets of “Big Oil.”
Which, let’s remember, is providing something useful, that people freely buy.
Unlike the government – which practices extortion and sometimes returns a pittance of what it takes by force in the form of benefits conferred upon some people – usually those who didn’t pay for them.
A 25 percent bite used to be considered usurious – and still is, only it’s legal now.
Well, the Orange Man has floated the idea of raising the mordita by another 25 cents – more than doubling the federal tax and bringing the total tax to a ruinous 75 cents-plus per gallon.
Which would also be ruinous to his 2020 re-election campaign, as well as to the economy his policies have helped to partially resuscitate. OM’s stated reason is to fund rebuilding of admittedly decaying infrastructure and to build more.
But bankrupting the people isn’t the way to do it – unless the object of the exercise is beautifully paved and very empty highways, on the North Korean model.
Trump – who is a billionaire – may not appreciate how much damage a doubling of gas taxation will do to the already precarious finances of people who aren’t even hundred-thousand-aires. People whose finances are precarious because of the serial tax-rape they endure on every dollar they earn before they even open the fuel door of their vehicle.
Federal and state taxes on income. Plus the Socialist Insecurity and Medicare mordita. Now Obamacare on top of that. Then the rent-in-perpetuity on their homes, even if long ago paid for. The Marxist property tax recommended by the bearded one himself. To make “owning” property an impossibility.
Together, these consume probably half or more of every dollar earned by most wage-slaves. It doesn’t leave much margin for a doubled gas tax, which will increase the tax they pay to about 40 percent of the cost of each gallon.
This would shame most loan sharks; not even the mafia is this cruel.
Besides, there is a much better way to fund admittedly needed infrastructure. A way that won’t stick it to the average wage-slave.
And Trump has already indicated he is favorably inclined.
That way is to divert the billions in electric car subsidies to fund roads and so forth. To stop lining the pockets of billionaires like Elon Musk at the expense of tens of millions of thousand-aires, in order to prop up his perpetually sickly “business” – which is nothing more than a fadish rent-seeking scam.
The federal EV subsidy alone is estimated at between $15-20 billion, plus another $400 million or so at the state level. This could buy a lot of infrastructure, without imposing any new taxes on hard-pressed Americans.
And it would get the potholes fixed without costing the Orange Man re-election.
He might want to consider it.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Let’s not forget to factor in the subsidy to the petro industry as in providing to them the U.S.Navy as a oil transport protection racket. Figure that into the cost of a gallon of gas. What’s the taxpayer bill to pay for the 5th Fleet in the Persian Gulf? Factor that amount into the cost of a gallon of gas and I bet it would be over $10 per gallon. Profit is privatized, risk is socialized.
IF Trump does push through a gas tax increase, that just further reinforces my belief that all along Trump has been and is a Trojan Horse for the Elites. Sure, he’s done some feel good things like he said he would and a tax cut, but he hasn’t come close to draining the swamp, prosecuting Obama’s gang of thieves, crooks and liars — all treasonous. He appears to be having limited success at securing the border, but why has he not put pressure on Congress to revise our immigration laws to stem the flow of illegals who now brazenly just walk across the border and flag down the Border Patrol and simply ask for asylum? AND they’re getting it, or at least getting a court date to appear before a judge to grant asylum or not just before they disappear into American society never to be seen again.
So, bottom line — I don’t trust Trump any more than Pelosi or Schumer. It’s all smoke and mirrors perpetuated by a phony two party system that failed over a century ago. I’m tired of being led by the best looking horse in the glue factory.
I’ve defended DJT all along but this is really making your point, Trojan Horse, a lot clearer. Crystal clear if he does propose this.
Taxes everybody except the rich and himself, while not showing his own tax returns. Hoodwinked again by the Orange Judas Goat. Vote harder.
Wasn’t the French Yellow Vests movement started over an increase in fuel taxes?
President Kushner doesn’t see anything particularly problematic with raising the gas tax by a dollar or two per gallon. That’s no more than $1,500 / vehicle per year. Would the cost of limousines even rise appreciably?
Congress has no qualms over raising the already obscene 38 billion dollar “aid” (actually extortion) package to Israhell. That alone would provide funds for improvements in the infrastructure. Although not one of the AIPAC bought and paid for Congresscritters would ever dare to suggest reducing aid to our “ally” in the Middle East, so let’s see if we can squeeze a little more blood out of the clueless turnips. Folks, you’ve been getting royally screwed over for decades and can’t seem to figure out who is doing this to you. Let me make it so simple a caveman can understand.
The International global Jewish banking cartel owns you, lock, stock and barrel. They own everything because a traitorous buffoon by the name of Woodrow Wilson gave them the keys to the treasury back in 1913. It was literally a license to rob, pillage and rape this nation to the last drop of the hapless citizen’s blood. Now that we have finally arrived at the inevitable event horizon, there is nothing left to tax. According to the book written by Arthur Koestler, who is himself Jewish, the Thirteenth Tribe states that the Khazarian Jews that are masquerading as the Israelites of the Bible are actually the destroyers of civilizations. Read it for yourself and quit pretending that you are still living in a free nation. There’s nothing free today if you’re the ones paying for everyone else’s free ride.
Shades of MACRON and France !! Now where is my yellow vest?……..
For most ‘Muricans, the yellow vest is UNDERNEATH the jar of their own balls that was lost a long time ago. They would probably have to start by turning off the MSM, the cell phone, and maybe some stupid ass reality TV. Then they may sober up, find their balls, and do someting.
Hey, for you Q fans, this may all be part of Trumps “master plan” to piss off everyone to the point that they may actually find their balls…..who knows. I just hope that SOMETHING will make the average citizen come to his senses and stop this madness and stupidity, and start demanding that these crooks in Washington actually do something that benefits the people that elected them. Not holding my breath BTW.
Mad- The greatest gift to humanity would be for the grid to go down and they regained their senses. Somewhere in that process, balls will be found. Why we have allowed the District of Criminals to become a organized crime syndicate of this magnitude is beyond me.
I would raise the tax enough to fix the terrible roars in my area.
And I would put a 10 cent per mile tax on every vehicle that weighs more than 35oo lbs.
It is time to end the absurdity of taking 5000, 6000, or 7000 pounds of metal everywhere you go.
Tell that to the limo-riding politicos; when they park their land-yachts, suvs, and planes, I will park my truck. The “good for thee but not for me” . . . ain’t.
Why? We produce enough of our own fuel. And CO2 is great for the living environment. Go away karl marx troll douchebag. If you want to take 7000 pounds of metal everywhere you go and can afford it, go for it, it’s called freedom, asswipe.
Funny how all those who refer to Trump as the ‘Orange Man’ never even once referred to Obama as the Creamy Cock-Sucker.
I always left off the word ‘creamy’.
Going back to when the Highway Trust Fund was indeed a trust fund. Pre-LBJ, IIRC:
The transportation fuel tax was pretty much the only fair tax there was. Don’t use the fuel? Don’t pay the tax. The money was dedicated to road construction and maintenance only. No subsidies to other uses.
As we know, with the advent of do-gooders this is no longer true.
A major problem now is that the fuel taxes no longer are enough to maintain our roadway system. Funds from general revenue are now needed.
Absent more decay in our roads, more tax money is needed. TANSTAAFL.
All taxes go into the “general fund”. And they never ever get repealed, on the contrary, the always go up. Even the ones they promised the citizens would be “temporary”. How many times do folks have to be bent over a stump and ass fucked before they wake up and smell the feces?
The Rape of the Highway Trust Fund began with Boston’s Big Dig project and the complicit politicians were Edward Kennedy and Tip O’neill.
How about taxing the shit out of Amazon. That company uses our roads for its profit. Same with the frackers. The damage they do to roads and bridges is enormous. It’s the usual, socialize losses and privatize profits.