ALL the tax loops and tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires are gone!

You shouldn't avoid the good (raising gas taxes) because you can't get the perfect (raising gas taxes, and closing all loopholes and tax breaks). There hasn't been an increase in over 20 years.

Everyone looks to the Poor and middle class to pay more and never look at the people that can afford to pay it more than I can. It can be 100 years and I would say the same thing.

just as gas prices are anticipated to go up because of the new ME tension - they propose to raise the gas tax.

This again will hit the poor, working and middle class harder than anyone.

If they want to raise the taxes - then they must also work to increase the minimum wage. Push it to $15.00.

They should also look to close corporate tax loopholes. Stop companies from moving overseas to save on taxes or if they insist on moving overseas - hit them with a new tax to keep them here.

They should also raise taxes on the top echelon of the American People - those that can afford it.

They should also move on infrastructure rebuilding to create jobs.

Come on guys - lets compromise here.

I may be out of my mind, but do we need to be talking taxes at this time, with only 5 1/2 months remaining before the biggest election in recent history? I understand the need to tackle huge problems that have been shoved to the back burner because of the Repigs, but if we haven't done those important things yet, we won't get them done now.. What's changed to lead us to think anyone will change their mind on the Right to pass anything before November?

I don't know about your area, but my gas, electric, and grocery bills are going through the roof, and in spite of our need to get things done I CAN'T HANDLE ANYMORE TAXES NOW..

I worked as a volunteer on his campaign. He'll be getting an earful from me on this one.

and we are expected to pay even more?

Here's the list of the top 25.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/03/17/companies-paying-highest-income-taxes/1991313/

I have no interest in defending oil corps so don't go there. I won't.

thats going to hurt. We producing more gas now and we are exporting but paying Bush era prices. We haven't had stable prices in years due to speculation. This could very well push gas to $5.00 or more in some states. They better fix the perennial BS problems companies use to increase the price. I propose eliminating the free handouts to the gas companies, and hit them for off-shoring to avoid paying taxes.


ExxonMobil had a three-year federal income tax rate of just 15 percent. This gave the company a tax subsidy worth $6.2 billion from 2010-2012. It had $43 billion in offshore profits at the end of 2012, on which it paid no US taxes.

http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/29/10-companies-that-dodge-corporate-taxes/

*note Exxon/Mobil has $4.00 per gal regular here now.

http://americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2014/02/10/83879/with-only-93-billion-in-profits-the-big-five-oil-companies-demand-to-keep-tax-breaks/

tax those gasoline companies/corporations more, don't lay this shit on our backs!!!!!

to your state & local gov.

It is a good idea to tax oil companies more. We should force them to cut their massive retail USA profits somehow. The Federal Admin. couldn't even cut off their free gov money subsidies or charge them more for leasing all Americans public lands.

They pay like $3 dollars an acre to strip them dry of resources, a very small royalty and then we have to pay to reclaim the ruined land when they are done.

If gas was .99 cents a gallon I might have a different opinion.

Start there.

I've based it on last year when 134.51 billion gallons of gasoline were sold according to the EIA. At a final (after tax increase) rate of 30.4 cents per gallon, that's $40.891 Billion per year in gas taxes.

I could only find an approximation of Diesel consumption at 7 billion gallons per year so at a final rate of 36.4 cents per gallon, that would bring in $2.548 Billion per year.

The combined total per year for the taxes would be $43.4 Billion.

This would still be a deficit based on 2011 figures where $36.2 Billion were spent on highways and $8.3 Billion on transit. This is another example of a tax that was created for one purpose being utilized for something it wasn't intended for (in this case, transit) and then not being adjusted to make up the deficit.

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=23&t=10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Trust_Fund
(wiki link has an external link to a PDF on the State of the Highway Trust Fund with expenditures and deficits in a table on page 10)

that this is going cause people to drive drive far less to mitigate the damage done to our pocketbooks. I'll take the bus to work. Will bike to the grocery store.
The revenue will not be as high because demand will be lower.

and realise CO2 is something you need to discourage.

In related news: The Home Planet Experiences its Warmest May on Record

but not by taxing the poor working folks that have to drive long distance to work every day! Get you KY Gel while you can.... there a big screwing coming your way soon!

Last edited Wed Jun 18, 2014, 04:45 PM - Edit history (2)

Ideally, this would be a part of a tax-and-dividend scheme for all carbon dioxide pollution - put a tax on fossil fuel electricity generation and heating too. But a 'high' gas tax for the US is 71 cents per gallon in California. That's minuscule. In the UK, it's 60% of 130p - 78 pence - per litre. That's more than 4 times 7 times the California rate (I forgot the exchange rate - 78p/litre = 78*1.7*3.78 = $5 per US gallon).

The US federal gas tax has been 18.4 cents for over 20 years. This proposed increase would just catch up with inflation since 1993, and then keep pace. In a world that is exterminating species, causing deaths by extreme weather, I don't think it's much to expect one of the world's richest countries to keep its gas tax in line with inflation.

you live in an urban setting and have a good job. We have million of rural poor Americans who have to drive over 60 miles a day to work at minimum wage jobs. This tax can be the straw that puts them on the unemployed list.

The USA can bear it.

Or is it unjust to poor people?

I think, along with pretty much every DUer I think, that the minimum wage should increase with inflation too.

I said "price discrimination"--that is, a way of allocating scarce resources by making them less available to the poor. It is discrimination against the poor, even if the minimum wage rises.

You're asking for subsidies to fossil fuel users.

Ideally, I would support fuel rationing, that would limit what individuals can use - so that everyone would have to switch to small cars, or live and work close together. But that would be extremely intrusive, and I can see that it would never happen in the US until real disasters are caused by climate change. But this is just restoring earlier tax rates that are needed to pay for the use of roads. In political terms, opposing it is regressive. Like saying "we need more time to study climate change" is politically regressive.

Everyone should help to pay for roads and bridges because everyone benefits from them, whether they actually drive on them or not. The same is true of education, and other public goods (goods from which everyone in society benefits). These items should be financed via a progressive income tax, not a regressive sales tax.

Match up the need to finance the infrastructure, and the vital (as in 'needed to avoid deaths') need to decrease carbon pollution, and it makes sense to tax fossil fuels. "The polluter pays" is a good principle.

But if '"The polluter pays" is a good principle,' then everyone who uses goods and services delivered on the highways is a polluter and should pay.

It increases the costs of delivery, which companies that send their goods over a longer distance will have to increase their prices for. Local goods and services will be less affected. It encourages efficiency.

Senator Corker will not notice the 12 cent increase he advocates, but poor people certainly will. There are other solutions to the pollution problem that do not involve this injustice.

And electric companies should be required to replace fossil fuels with solar power as a source of electricity.

Thanks for a good discussion

Of course they wouldn't (the market would be doing it on a massive scale without any compulsion or subsidy if they were). You'd be putting far larger costs on users than a 12 cent per gallon tax increase to get back to the 1993 situation.

You're already looking at nearly $40 Billion in road repairs annually. With everybody driving electric, where would the taxes come from, especially if they charge their vehicles with home-based solar?

Thanks.

The working poor have already been priced out of plane tickets and such. Any sales tax like this is very regressive. Like reply #1 says, close the billionaires' loopholes first

Oil costs less than $10 a barrel to produce, and sells for over $100. That's over 1000% profit. Oil is more profitable than cocaine. "They" are never going to give that up.

massive, massive, USA only, profits to continue (stocks will never crash if they can help it.)

The oil companies will still be able to enjoy profits for many decades to come from all the exports to other countries who are 200 years behind the rest of the world in progress. but nooo, retail sellers have to price gouge, RIP-off- Americans because we have weak/no consumer protections. Our Federal Gov. gets a few cents, 'Federal tax' and they get screwed too.

Every American should get a nice fat couple thousand kickback check from the oil companies just like every man, woman and child in Alaska enjoy, every year.

Per-gallon breakdown
Where your gas money goes:
Federal tax 18.4¢
State Petroleum Business Tax 17.8¢
State Motor Fuel Excise Tax 8¢
State Petroleum Testing Fee 0.05¢
State Spill tax 0.3¢
State sales tax 8¢
City sales tax in MTA region (4.375%) 16.9¢
TOTAL TAXES: 69.45¢

Refiner 23¢
Delivery 2¢
Gas station 22¢
Oil company $2.88

This is NY's..

I don't even think President Obama can cut off the subsidies (free Gov money!) oil companies enjoy.

Now republicans will still blame next decades gas prices on Obama.

I need to buy some oil & gas stocks with my tiny emergency savings account.

Interest rates only 0.1% for a Chase bank savings account anyway and was thinking about dumping Chase bank fees.

Stocks would be better than stuffing emergency cash under my bed.

This is from Forbes, so it's aimed at that high-income audience, but it's the most concise summary I spotted. And yeah, this "bipartisan" plan is aimed at increasing gasoline taxes on the working poor and middle class in exchange for slashing taxes on the wealthy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/01/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-taxes-in-2014-expired-tax-breaks-obamacare-penalties-more/

First, the top tax rate for taxpayers is now 39.6%. We haven’t seen those kind of rates in almost 15 years. Those Bush-era tax cuts have finally expired, giving us the 20th century tax rates (gosh, that sounds really, really old). How high will it go? The 39.6% tax rate kicks in at $400,000 for individual taxpayers and $450,000 for married couples filing jointly.

All wages are subject to Medicare tax. That hasn’t changed. But now, taxpayers who make over $200,000 ($250,000 for married taxpayers) will be subject to the Medicare surtax. If that’s you, a Medicare surtax will be tacked on to your wages, compensation, or self-employment income over that amount. The amount of the surcharge is .9%.

Even if you aren’t affected by the Medicare tax surcharge, you still may be subject to the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) if you have both net investment income and modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of at least $200,000 for an individual taxpayer and $250,000 for taxpayers filing as married. . . .

The limitation for itemized deductions – the Pease limitations, named after former Rep. Don Pease (D-OH) – claimed on individual returns for tax year 2014 will begin with incomes of $254,200 or more ($305,050 for married couples filing jointly). The Pease limitations were slated to be reduced beginning in 2006 and eliminated in 2010; as with the other tax cuts, the elimination was extended through the end of 2012. The limitations were brought back in 2013 at the original thresholds, indexed for inflation.

Energy giant Exxon Mobil (XOM – Free Exxon Mobil Stock Report) has reported first-quarter 2014 earnings of $2.10 a share, versus $2.12 in the year-earlier quarter and our estimate of $1.90. Although the comparison from 12 months ago was flat, it was impressive that Exxon still generated $9.1 billion in profits, making it a veritable cash machine. The results topped the investment community's expectations, as well. The stock slipped on the report, however, possibly because of the downbeat tone to drilling operations (see below).

http://www.valueline.com/Stocks/Highlights/Dow-30_Earnings__Exxon_Mobil_Corp__%e2%80%93_First_Quarter_2014.aspx

Exxon still generated $9.1 billion in profits, making it a veritable cash machine. How many Billions do they need, they run up the price on everything, screwing US Daily. Monopoly is Dangerous, the corporations have Monopolized to the state we will have only the rich and poor, screwing the masses. the Fix is in and we loose!

Paying almost 4 dollars per gallon and have been since bush's not so excellent adventure in Iraq. How about the wealthy in this country start paying for something thing. I am sick of being nickel and dimed so some rich fuck can keep even more of the money he is NEVER going to spend. When are people going to be as fed up as I am?!?

As if our pay is keeping up with their inflation. Jack up the millionaires tax, not the little guys. Assholes.

this kind of thing is as old as dirt - a feature of colonialism.
Make life as hard as possible for the colonized.
It keeps them from getting ideas.

last ten years, would the revenue have also doubled? Why are we so short then? What would happen if the price at the pump had an appreciable drop back to 2003 levels $1.50 ish per gallon? It would decimate our infrastructure? Does the government have any incentive to encourage low gas prices?

and have been 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993.

No more taxes on gasoline. People are having a hard enough time just fueling up to get to work.

Not so much the gasoline tax, but he was against NAFTA (which really wasn't so crazy on his part).

The problem with increasing the federal gasoline tax is that state governments are doing the same:

From a Dec. 31, 2013 article:

"Expect to pay more at Pennsylvania gas pumps starting Wednesday, as the first wave of a series of tax hikes takes effect."

“Fuel companies will determine how much of the tax increase to pass on to consumers,” said PennDOT spokesman Richard Kirkpatrick. “If entirely passed on, the change would be about 9.5 cents a gallon.”

"By early 2017, the new tax rate could add more than 25 cents a gallon, pushing Pennsylvania’s gas taxes higher than any current level in the nation, according to American Petroleum Institute figures."

"California is now No. 1, with 53.2 cents a gallon for state taxes, with only Hawaii, New York and Connecticut above Pennsylvania’s imminent total of 41.8. By early 2017, Pennsylvania will be collecting at least 58 cents a gallon."

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Pa_gas_tax_to_rise_Jan_1_again_in_2015_and_17_.html#hQ0QF55ke2TZFaki.99

to me. Raise taxes at the pump station which will affect all of us and propose offsetting this with extending some tax loopholes on the premise this is to help pay for highway projects. Sounds like a ruse to KEEP THESE TAX LOOPHOLES!