Climate Change Dispatch by Monica Showalter on Jan 25, 2021
According to the account of the same hearings by Roll Call, which seemed to be on damage control duty for the Biden administration, Buttigieg’s people walked the tax talk back, but not exactly. The record of the hearing seems to be the reality.
Two things stand out: Buttigieg wants a tax hike for gasoline to fund his so-called infrastructure projects. Who will pay those taxes? Those who drive.
And if someone needs to drive a lot, such as an independent truck-driver or a low-wage service worker who can’t afford to live in the blue city center, but instead makes do with a commute on the outskirts of town, the tax becomes regressive.
The tax is the same for the rich or poor, and maybe the rich can afford it. But the poor live on a low margin — the tax will likely cut to the bone for the poor, forcing them to go without, say, in food supplies or other necessities. Tax hikes that are the same and unavoidably hit the poor the hardest.
The hearing also notes that Buttigieg likes the Big Brother solution, to tax people based on miles driven. Besides being amazingly intrusive, hooking worker cars up like guinea pigs to the meters, it’s also another big regressive tax that will hit the poor hardest.
See, those wicked, wicked poor, out in places like Sun Valley and Lancaster, commuting to a job to downtown Los Angeles because they can’t afford the L.A. rents, really should be paying more for the privilege of driving several hours to work and living out in the sticks.
More:
https://climatechangedispatch.com/bidens-regressive-energy-policy-is-a-nasty-war-on-the-poor/
