Gas and taxes
Lately, there’s been a lot of things worth mention, but here are two of particular note:
Ethanol: Now it’s personal
This love affair we’re having with ethanol has got to stop. Among the many shortcomings that are noted in a recent New York Times blog post, “Ethanol and the Tortilla Tax,” comes this gem:
So far, Americans havent really caught on to what is happening to the price of products such as soybean or corn-based foodstuffs. But that may change if and when this rush to all fuels allegedly more environmentally friendly affects the price of beer.
It could happen; Heineken, the brewery giant, said beer prices might have to be raised because so many crops are being planted and diverted to bio-fuel production that the supply of barley and hops is being reduced.
Over-reliance on a crop that is chemically dependent and facilitates erosion, being disingenuous about the energy required to produce the stuff (and its purported “green” image), and shortchanging the world’s food supply in favor of keeping our country’s fleet of S.U.V’s in motion is one thing. But fuck with our beer supply? It just won’t fly.
Encouraging bad behavior
Representative Zack Space of Ohio has a solution for the twin “problems” of foreclosures and “high” gas prices:
…families who lose their homes to foreclosure frequently are hit with a massive tax bill. They lose their home and are hit with a “foreclosure tax” by the IRS, adding insult to injury. […] This “foreclosure tax” is simply unfair and needless injury. That’s why I will be introducing legislation to help alleviate this problem.
I also don’t have to tell you what gasoline prices have done to our families’ budgets. Earlier this summer, prices climbed to $3.25 per gallon and higher. For most of us who live in rural areas, we have no choice but to pay those prices if we want to continue to get to work and pick up our kids from school.
That is why I announced my plan to introduce the Rural Commuters Tax Relief Act of 2007. This legislation could not be simpler: If your household makes less than the national median income, you drive more than 30 miles to work and you work at least four days per week, then you receive a $100 tax credit for each month that the average price of gas is more than $3 per gallon.
So, if I read this right, he’d like to set up programs that only serve to reinforce the behavior that caused the problems in the first place? That’s poor governance.
To wit:
Why are more people suddenly facing foreclosure on their $300,000 home? It’s got a lot to do with the recent subprime lending boom and the popularity of adjustable rate mortgages, which allow for the easy acquisition of a McMansion in the ‘burbs. Speculation in a real-estate market that is teetering on the edge of collapse is not, historically, something that Joe Middle Class usually engaged in. Why not direct this “relief” into something more productive, such as borrower education that encourages potential homeowners to realign their expectations with economic reality?
Representative Space’s district lies amidst a lot of Rust Belt cities that could use an infusion of fresh blood. Incentives to repopulate these empty urban centers would serve to increase the economic health of his state more so than the current cycle of suburban development, which does nothing but keep the fast food chains, big box stores, and highway construction contractors happy. True, it may keep his district from becoming a haven for the Bed, Bath and Beyond set, but we should be concerned with preserving, not developing, our rural communities.
Promoting this type of behavior would also serve to eliminate the need to “help” people who “drive more than 30 miles to work.” The best help for these kind of people is the kind that encourages them to move closer to where they work. In Representative Space’s district, that would probably include cities like Columbus, Akron, and Canton. None of which are weathering the current suburban exodus all that well.
