Now they are thinking of requiring every car to have a gps device to let the government know how many miles you drive and hence tax you by the mile. I find this a very scary proposal.
This is being considered due to the following:
1. Government said we are driving too many gas guzzlers and start requiring mileage standards for vehicles
2. People start buying more fuel efficient cars
3. Gas taxes fall dramatically
4. Government needs to find a way to replace lost gas tax revenue.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-lahood-vehicle-mileage-tax,0,6754105,print.story
This goes to my argument against federal transportation infrastructure in the first place: Don't build it if the states can't maintain it on their own. Seriously, what the hell is a federal highway anyways? Do you not have to abide by the state laws in which the highway is in? When it comes time to repair the same highway does the state DOT not take sealed bids to award the contract? Is it not the state DOT inspectors that oversee the job the contractor is doing? I understand that the federal gov't gives them the money (or part of) to fix the damn thing, but it is something that should be left up to the state to decide and fund.
Also, they would have plenty of gas tax revenue if they would take their greedy hands out of that cookie jar to spend in other places.