Tim Pawlenty and The Mileage Tax

The latest right-wing Obama bashing meme floating around is that "Obama wants to tax your mileage." This is usually coupled with an assertion that Obama wants to install a GPS device in your car so he can track your movements and tax you based on the number of miles you drive. One Freeper even went so far as to claim that trips to abortion clinics and Obama rallies would probably be exempt while trips to teabagger rallies would be charged at a higher rate. The batshit crazies are getting pretty worked up about this.

This CNN article explains more about the genesis of this latest meme. http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/18/news/economy/gas_tax_drivers/index.htm This is an idea that the Congressional Budget Office has studied but the Obama administration has stated that they will not support this plan. Of course, teabaggers and Freepers never let facts interfere with a good Obama-bashing.

But here's the kicker... Guess who has supported this plan in the past? Tim Pawlenty. In 2009, as Governor of Minnesota, Pawlenty signed a bill to spend 5 million dollars on a pilot program to study a mileage-based tax. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/18/mileage_tax/ In April of this year the Minnesota Department of Transportation asked for volunteers to test this program. http://www.kare11.com/news/article/919754/396/MnDOT-to-test-drivers-mileage-tax

I just thought this info might come in handy. I was on a travel board recently where the teabaggers were starting the "Obama wants to track your mileage and tax you" crap and they shut up pretty quickly when I showed them that their buddy Pawlenty had been a pioneer in this area.

When I first heard it I thought, "Oh dear God, don't let this be true." It's just the kind of thing that the general public would go crazy over. The tracking aspect is particularly troublesome. Every time I heard it mentioned it was touted as being an Obama idea and that simply isn't true.

A couple of states are probably going to implement this program. I think Oregon is ready to go and Minnesota is studying it as mentioned in the OP. Texas is looking at doing this but ONLY to hybrid cars. That's particularly fucked up.