Washington state may impose a “fee” on people who buy electric cars

  As far as I can tell, Barack Obama’s energy policy consists of windmills and choo-choo trains; considering the fact that the left considers themselves to be “progressive” this policy seems to be quite “regressive.” After all, windmills and trains were all the rage a few centuries ago. But there is another aspect to Barack Obama’s energy policy and that is what I intend to focus on in this post–the electric car.

  Government Motors is pushing the Volt on the American people as a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine and the president is so high on this notion that the federal government offers people who buy these vehicles tax incentives for their environmentally correct decision. But there is a dilemma for the government that is beginning to rear its ugly head in regards to the electric car.

  Here is the dilemma the left is facing; they have told us for years that we are addicted to oil and we must cut back on it in order to save the planet. Barack Obama even changed the fleet standards auto manufacturers have to live up to–ordering the auto manufacturers to make their vehicles more energy efficient.

  But as cars get more fuel efficient, and with electric cars now hitting the market, the government is beginning to realize that the revenue they were receiving from gasoline taxes is going down. This reduction in income is going to have to be made up somewhere, so states are now beginning to look at the idea of charging an annual “fee” on those people who decide to buy the electric cars that the government has been pushing on the American people.

  Washington is the first state which may impose such a “fee”, but we can all rest assured that other states will follow and while Washington’s $100 “fee” is modest enough, we all know what will happen to this “fee” once it is imposed–it will rise. And once the federal government sees the money that these states are receiving from this “fee” we can be sure that what is now a tax incentive to buy these cars will eventually be a “fee” imposed on those that are trying to abide by Barack Obama’s energy policy.

  In an age when the federal politicians are telling the American people that we must all sacrifice for the greater good–this goes for the economy as well as saving the world–it seems as if smaller revenues should be an acceptable side effect for saving the world, we all have to sacrifice right? And isn’t saving the environment a worthy enough cause that the government would be willing to sacrifice revenue?

   But the politicians are upset about this sacrifice in revenue and so they are looking for other ways to make up for the lost revenue their policies have cost them. When politicians talk about shared sacrifice they are using code words to tell the American taxpayer that it is time for them to sacrifice more of their hard earned money to the government because they believe that they can spend taxpayer money better than the taxpayer can. In effect they are telling the American taxpayer that they can make do with less money, yet here we have a great example of the government not being willing to do the same.

  The American people may be addicted to oil as we have been told, but now we can see that we are not the only ones because the federal government is so addicted to oil that when the demand goes down they look for other revenue streams to make up the difference. I guess they do not believe in sharing in the sacrifice they are asking the American people to make.