Democrats Want To Increase Fuel Taxes

Democrats have always wanted to increase fuel taxes (and any other taxes for that matter). All they know how to do is raise taxes and spend, spend, spend. Many Republicans are no better in that they might not want to raise taxes but they keep spending.

In any event, recent conditions in the oil market have led to a drastic drop in gas prices. This means that people are not spending a month’s pay to fill their vehicles but it also means Democrats see an opportunity.

You see, they want to raise the tax on fuel. I guess they figure now that people have become accustomed to paying high prices a rise in taxes would only bring them back to their original level of pain while raking in tons of money for the feds.

In other words, you can’t spend the money you save on gas because government needs more money. Now that you have a little more; cough it up.

What happens when fuel prices go back up? The tax damn sure will not go away and we will be paying even more.

The government gets two and a half or three times more for a gallon of gas than the companies who bring it to market (on average the oil company makes about 8 cents a gallon in profit). They already rob you and then they use the money for unconstitutional or unnecessary spending instead of for the roads and bridges.

Tell them to keep their hands out of our pockets and leave us alone.

UPDATE: Republicans seem to want to get in on the action as well. They will betray us before it is over.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

In Maryland The Taxes Just Keep On Coming

The People’s Republic of Maryland is wealthy. It has counties surrounding DC and many of the wealthy folks who do business in DC live in Maryland. The economic impact of job loss has not hurt Maryland as badly as other states for this very reason; a lot of Marylanders are employed by the federal government.

Maryland is also a bastion of liberal lunacy. The State Legislature has a huge Democrat majority and the Congressional delegation is heavily Democrat. At the state level the Democrats continue to push liberal tax and spend policies that hurt the state which has seen its population of millionaires dwindle as these folks leave for states that are more tax friendly.

When Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich was in office (the first Republican in decades) he proposed slots parlors as a way to make money for the state. This was pooh poohed by Democrats as bad policy and not the way to make money. Current Democrat Governor Martin “The Teflon Leprechaun” O’Malley was singing along with the chorus.

When O’Malley defeated Ehrlich the tune changed and suddenly slots was a great idea. The morons in Annapolis placed the issue on the ballot for referendum which stupidly added it to the State Constitution. They were too cowardly to enact it as legislation because they wanted to be able to claim they did not do it when those opposed to slots complained.

Regardless, the measure passed and nearly eight years after Ehrlich proposed slots, they were in Maryland. The state lost slots revenue all that time because of politics.

Now there are two parlors operating (with more to come) and they are bringing in more than 10 million dollars a month (think about all that lost revenue because of politics).

Event though the parlors bring in this revenue the state has still raised taxes. Two years ago there was a special session where taxes were raised across the board. The sales tax went up 20%, the income tax was raised on higher income workers, all kinds of services were taxed or had tax increases and once again the citizens got screwed. Interestingly, people must have found ways to avoid the taxes because revenue decreased or was not what they expected.

The state has a history of misappropriating funds. The Transportation Fund was raped by legislators in order to pay other bills. Transportation projects still needed to be paid for but the money that was dedicated to them was spent on other things like social welfare programs, many of which go to illegal aliens. The state held public meetings about proposed toll increases along Maryland’s many toll roads. Despite overwhelming opposition from the public, the state increased the tolls.

Now the state wants to raise the tax on gasoline by 15 cents a gallon (a 65% increase). The state is proposing to phase in a tax increase on a commodity that the state already heavily taxes. They claim they need to increase funds for the transportation projects and they promise the funds will not be used for anything else. The reality is that they already had the funds and they spent them on something else. They are effectively trying to make us pay twice for the same thing. We paid in and they had the money, they spent it on something else and now they want us to pay in again. It is certainly easier for these clowns to misappropriate money from a needed fund to pay for things the public might not favor and to force us to pay again into the necessary fund then it is to sell increasing our taxes to cover things like more social welfare and tuition and health care for illegal aliens.

The state is also considering raising the already ridiculously high cost of registering vehicles, the flush tax (money to help the Chesapeake Bay that we all pay as part of our water bill), and increases in bus and rail fees (the state has also raised the tax on alcoholic beverages). The state has misappropriated money and spent unwisely and now is looking to gouge its citizens.

Where is all the slots money going? Why do we have increases in taxes and fees (fees are taxes) and why do we continue to have a bloated budget each and every year? It is because Maryland is fiscally irresponsible and instead of actually cutting things that have no place in government it chooses to view more money coming in as an excuse to spend even more. Rather than balance the budget based on its current revenue and by cutting unneeded services the state would rather dig into the pockets of those who work for a living.

They continue to spend, spend, spend and they are reckless in how they manage money. There are tons of dollars spent that keep people in poverty and force the rest of us to fund their lives. We pay for their medical care, their welfare, their food stamps, their government provided cell phones (a right you know) and their very existence so that Democrats can continue to rely on a particular block of voters.

When you rob Peter to pay Paul you can always count on Paul’s support. That is what Democrats in Maryland (and really across the country) do and this is why Maryland keeps electing corrupt morons to run the state.

People are fed up with tax and spend policies. There are necessary costs associated with government and those expenses should be borne by all people represented by that government. The balance of the things government assumes as a responsibility are not in their lane and should be abolished. Smaller government where everyone has, as Joe Biden called it, skin in the game is the most effective way to run things.

How many people have to shop in tax friendly states or buy their gas across the border before the legislature in Maryland realizes that taxing us to death will not solve the problem of fiscal irresponsibility and misappropriation?

It is time for people to fight back. It is time to let politicians in Annapolis know that they back the proposals of the lame duck Governor at their own peril.

We need fiscal responsibility from people who actually know what they are doing. That would exclude those who have lived their lives off the backs of others, like the very politicians in Annapolis.

We have been Taxed Enough Already and it is time for Marylanders to use every legal method to avoid the taxes imposed by the tyrannical government that is imposing its will on the people. Shop in other states, buy gas in other states, buy alcohol in other states and buy your tobacco in other states (though I don’t condone the use it is a legal product) and look to the Internet to buy things and have them delivered.

There are many legal ways to cut the head off the snake.

Time to get a sharp knife and do just that.

Related:
WJZ (CBS) Baltimore
Maryland Slots Revenue

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

GM To Taxpayers; Thanks, Now Bend Over

General Motors received a lot of money from the US taxpayer under both George Bush and Barack Obama. Despite Obama’s claims (and his fuzzy math) about car companies paying back the money, they still owe the taxpayer billions of dollars that we will likely never see. GM CEO Dan Akerson said he was grateful that the government rescued GM but wants the government out of the company in the next 6 to 12 months. Newsflash for Mr. Akerson, the government did not rescue your company, the taxpayer did through coercive tax policies that allow the government, under threat of force, to extract money from people who earn it and spend it on companies like yours. Companies that are poorly managed and spend unwisely. The taxpayer was forced to rescue your company because it was mismanaged and we had no say in the matter.

How does Mr. Akerson want to repay the taxpayer who rescued his company? He is in favor of raising the federal gas tax by as much as a dollar a gallon in order to compel people to buy more fuel efficient cars. GM just happens to make a few models of fuel efficient cars so his company will benefit from the tax increase (at least that is what he wants). What we have here is a company that was bailed out by people who are having trouble making ends meet wanting to screw those very people.

No good deed (if anyone would call bailing out a company a good deed) goes unpunished.

How are people who are having trouble making ends meet supposed to buy a new car? How will forcing them to pay more for fuel make their lives any easier when they can’t afford a new, fuel efficient car but will be forced to pay the higher fuel tax for the fuel consumed by their older cars? This takes into consideration that people still have cars in the first place. Most who still have them are probably still paying for them so they will be severely underwater if they trade in for a fuel efficient car. Those cars can run about 40,000 dollars. Those who have paid off their cars will likely pay the fuel tax rather than go into debt to save at the pump.

And what about people who have no use for the little boxes of fuel efficiency? What about those who must have SUVs and pick-up trucks? Some of us must report to work no matter what so my Jeep is a better option than a car that will not make it in the snow. When that little car can get me to work in the snow and haul 800 pounds of stuff then I will consider it. The people who must have the larger vehicles will end up paying more at the pump.

This is a fine thank you to the American taxpayer for rescuing GM. Mr. Akerson.

How about the next time you need money we just say no?

Better yet, how about we decide not to buy GM vehicles?

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

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Maryland Democrats Want Us To Pay For Their Malfeasance

Maryland has a transportation trust fund that taxes collected from the sale of gasoline (and other items) go in to and the money is supposed to cover the cost of repairing bridges and roads. Unfortunately, this trust fund has become a slush fund for the Democrats in Maryland. This fund has been raided for years to cover budget shortfalls. Instead of actually doing things in a responsible manner, the Democrats insist on adding more and more programs that give taxpayer money to one social welfare program or another and then use money from other sources (like the transportation fund) to pay for them.

The state is in a financial mess and the Democrats used billions of dollars from the trust fund to pay for stupidity and mismanagement. Now that they have completely screwed up our finances and mismanaged the money they already collected from us, they have a plan on how to make up the trust fund shortfall.

They are Democrats so you know what it is. They want to raise taxes. Maryland imposes a 23.5 cent per gallon tax on gasoline and Democrats want to add 12 more cents to that increasing it to 35.5 cents a gallon. As if Obama’s energy policies driving gasoline up to the $4.00 a gallon mark are not bad enough, Maryland wants to add more pain at the pump.

This gas tax increase was introduced during the legislative session but it went nowhere, in large part because of rising gas prices. But now, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is looking at a special session in order to raise the gas taxes. He promised he would not raise taxes but it looks like that is a promise that will be broken and this broken promise will hurt all the folks who voted for him. The poor folks who live off the taxpayer are still going to have to fork over more money to fill their gas tanks. Hope it feels good folks.

As for the transportation trust fund, it seems to me that it is the height of arrogance for politicians to take our money and direct it to a fund for a specific purpose and then use that money for everything except what it was intended for and then claim it needs to raise taxes to make up for the malfeasance. We paid you once and you had the money. Why should we have to pay more to make up for your mismanagement?

O’Malley says that people generally oppose a tax increase on gasoline but when the roads are bad enough they might not mind paying. I don’t care how bad the roads get, I don’t want them to raise taxes on gasoline. Get rid of all the programs that the state has to pay our money to illegal aliens and we might have enough to fix the roads.

The legislators are promising that they will not use the new money for anything else. That is what they were supposed to do the last time.

They can change the rules anytime they want and they will do whatever they want regardless of the rules.

If they followed the rules the transportation trust fund would not be out of money.

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

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Government Mismanages And The People Pay

The People’s Republic of Maryland is run by a bunch of Democrats who only know how to tax and spend. They continue to spend long after the well has run dry and they make up shortfalls by taxing the people who work hard for their money. They are only too eager to take that money and spend it on people who do not work. They especially like to spend it on illegal immigrants.

The Maryland government is much like the federal government. It taxes for a specific purpose and then uses the money for something else. At the federal level there is no bigger example than Social Security. The Social Security tax has been collected for decades and the money has been spent on all kinds of projects. If the politicians had left the money alone there would be plenty but they did not so now it looks like they will eventually have to increase taxes to replace the money that was collected. We are paying for it twice.

A similar situation exists in Maryland with the transportation fund. Money has been collected via gasoline taxes and vehicle registration fees for transportation projects but the politicians have raided that account and used the money to pay other bills. Now, to make up for the shortfall, a politician has a proposal to raise the gasoline tax by 10 cents a gallon.

If this is not bad enough, the same moron wants to increase vehicle registration fees by 50%. It already costs at least $130 dollars (this goes up depending on vehicle type and weight) every 2 years so this would mean an additional $65. How much more will these leeches suck from us?

The proposal would go to referendum so at least the people would be allowed to vote on it.

The proposal would also include language to prevent the transportation fund from being used for any other purpose. In other words, they spent money in a way that was not intended and now there is not enough so they will raise taxes to cover that screw up and promise not to do it again.

This is corruption, plain and simple.

How many more times are taxpayers going to be forced to pay more to cover the bungling ineptitude of those put in office?

Maryland raised taxes to record levels only a few years ago and saw revenues drop because people are finding ways to avoid paying more. People go to nearby states to buy tobacco products and to buy items where there are no sales taxes.

The increase also comes with a 1 cent inflation index starting in 2013. You can bet the taxes will not drop if there is deflation.

Maryland taxes people for everything. We pay state taxes, local taxes, city taxes, sales tax, property tax and if they can figure out how to do it we will pay a tax on the air we breathe.

We get little for our money (except for those who suckle at the welfare teat) and it is high time the people in Annapolis started running the state in a fiscally responsible manner. We need a better return on investment.

I am tired of paying through the nose for the failed policies of pandering career politicians who are inept and too stupid to actually run anything.

These people need to get a clue so let me give them one. You cannot tax your way to prosperity…

Source:
WBAL

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

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