So if you drive a hybrid car, you're buying less gas. We generally pay for our roads with gas taxes, so people using less gas generates less taxes. So how will we pay for our roads? By taxing people who drive hybrids! Thus eliminating the net savings a hybrid owner might otherwise enjoy.

What kinda logic is that?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1126-06.htm

Or perhaps if we didn't spend billions, hundreds of billions,
on a failed (so called) war on Terra?

Or maybe if he cut back the pentigon budget by 1/3rd?

1/4?




1/8th?

Yeah, I'm with Ben Cohen on that one. http://www.truemajority.org/oreos/

Taxing hybrid vehicles in order to make up for the lost revenue in federal gas taxes. There's a good idea. Remember Bush's supposed tax cuts for small businesses a couple of years ago. It included a tax cut for businesses to buy trucks and SUVs, but only if the vehicles were over 5000 lbs.

On the other hand, you can still get a tax break for buying an SUV!

This is the kind of lunacy that kills the environment.

In Canada things make a bit more sense. If you buy a good fuel economy car, the Gov't pitches in for a % of the cost of the car. It encourages people to buy things like small Japanese cars.

Hooray for the US gov't and its big business / anti-environment crazy laws.

I think the big execs of the American Car industry have never been IN a Japanese can.
I think if they would drive one for a few days they might understand why they are so popular!

In Illinois there was a sales tax break as well on the purchase.

It did help a few farmers upgrade vehicles. They were able to use less of their subsidy money to buy a new truck.

A few years ago I was a recruiter for my university, and had to travel all over ONtario for 8 weeks and do recruiting at high schools. I had to rent cars for 8 weeks. My first week I rented a Chevy Impala. What a piece of crap. Poor gas mileage, poor handling, and it was ugly.

Then I rented a Camry. I kept it for the last 7 weeks. Great mileage, great handling, very comfy.

I would never buy a North American "car." Ever. GM and Ford are garbage.

The Japanese know how to make a decent car. Living in Japan now, I can count on 2 hands the number of US cars I've seen here.

This new policy is simply designed to promote the sale of those horrible SUV's and large trucks.

Import Taraff.

The same with many other things, like Rice!

That's true. The Japanese are hyper-protectionist.

The import tariff on Calif. rice is 400%.

But, Japan is a US lapdog, so its OK. If China were to do that however... holy crap, things would explode.

so much for looking at the bright side....

whats worse? bad roads, or kids dying due to wars over oil?

Not to mention the enviromental benefits...

Plus smaller, lighter hybrid cars-= less wear and tear on the roads.

Or kids dying on bad roads made of oil?

Maybe we should all go back to horses!

(Anybody else had the thought that if cars were proposed today, it would never be approved because it's too dangerous, too great a chance of accidents....)