I seriously doubt he’d actually do that. He’d lose a lot of support from liberals like me. Outlawing my 70 degree heated house is one of the very few things that could make me vote for a conservative candidate.
Thank you. I have high hopes the CAFE standard will go up and a lot less SUVs and gas guzzlers will be on the road. I would like to a see a higher gas tax phased in over the next 8 years. I would even like to see a progressive gas tax that rewarded high mileage vehicles and punished low mileage vehicles. (Commercial vehicle would have a different standard)
As to AC, it is a matter of making all appliances more efficient and on better timers/programmable stats and not eliminating them. In my case I offset my Central Air with Solar Panels and plan to either upgrade to a much more efficient model or find a contractor that can install an affordable geo-thermal system for me.
New Homes need to start being built smarter. There is a huge energy savings that can be gained by intelligent house and building design. LED lighting, efficient appliances with nearly no wattage draw when not in use and many new and renewable power sources are all needed going forward.
Thanks. Sounds reasonable. I might start a GD thread later on to address some other aspects of this.
While I expect they will raise the age again at some point, I’m certain that it will only be for people who are a decade or so away from the present retirement age. Telling a 66 year old the retirement they were planning for next year will have to be postponed till 70 is a bad idea for any number of reasons.
So if your close now, your almost certainly safe.
Personally, I think a $4 fixed gas price is an excellent idea, provided that it comes with an partially offsetting tax break for commercial vehicles. Much, much more effective than a CAFE standard- just let the market push for more efficient vehicles!
We saw first hand how well it works with the recent gas spikes.
My major problem with it is that it is a very regressive tax. Requiring stricter CAFE standards will, at least, be progressive.
That’d be Guinness, right, NRATB?
Why would stricter CAFE standards be any more progressive? The manufacturers will pass along the cost of developing more efficient vehicles to the customer, and probably not in a proportional fashion.
If they start taxing beer (more), I’ll emigrate.
If you intentionally edited my username because you think I’m a right-winger or something, than you should 1) check my posting history, and 2) grow up.
It’s amazing to me how many Dopers have more than $250K in Taxable Income.:dubious:
It’s only around 3% of the taxpayers, you know.
Great, that’s exactly what I need. To be told that 72 isn’t old enough for SS now. I have to work until I’m 75. Fuck that, I’ll drive off a cliff at 70 instead.
I won’t mind paying more taxes, as long as he ** intelligently ** weeds through the government waste and abuse. I’m a government contractor, and you could easily cut the command I work at, and the one next door in half and still get the job done. Especially if you get the right people in. I was heartened by part of his speech I heard at the…Commander in Chief’s ball? (I think) specifically mentioning the enlisted men and women and their contributions. The largest problem I’ve seen in the organizations I’ve worked in is the lack of what I term “senior enlisted” personnel. Those that may not have as much educational background, but a hell of a lot more operational experience and are in positions to actually be listened to.
Well, the fact that it affects new car purchases only, and probably will affect more expensive cars like SUVs before it affects the cheap-o Yaris. Sure, it’ll trickle down to the used car market, but it’ll probably take a long time for that to happen.
I am covered under my husband’s medical plan. I think our medical care may cost more per month out of pocket for us under Obama’s presidency. Then again I work a full time job and do not get medical benefits. I am hopeful that Obama will insure that my family and I would have access to medical care if my husband should ever get laid off.
I would be very happy with that tradeoff.
IMU that changes in the CAFE standards require across-the-board fuel consumption reductions for each manufacturer, meaning that (say) Toyota would have to reduce the fuel consumption of all its models by 10%, or whatever.
I could be wrong.
Anyway, the vital conditional in the $4 gasoline price is that the revenue goes toward building mass transit and facilities for pedestrians, which are frankly afterthoughts in the spending plans of most US cities/states and the Federal Government.
Here in Orlando, for example, we’ve almost certainly just passed the 2 million mark in terms of metropolitan population. We’ve had light rail programs suggested and then squashed, a high speed intercity rail system approved by the voters and then voted against 4 years later, and finally have a commuter rail system in the planning stages. Building it now would be easy; population/building density isn’t heavy, even in the downtown area- but building it in 20 years when it will take an hour and a half to drive into downtown from the suburbs will be very, very difficult. And expensive.
Dear Really Not All That Bright,
<white flag>
I have no truck with you! I abbreviated your screen name simply out of laziness and the stack of work before me today. No offense intended.
Peace, brother!
Myself
I’m not sure what you are talking about but I don’t think you are talking about the same thing the rest of us are. I think Obama and the Houses might need to raise taxes in general to pay for the huge deficit that has been run up in the last 8 years and the bailouts.
I assume you are talking about that same stupid issue that Joe the Plumber was nattering about and that will affect very few of us.
I expect to pay a little more in taxes, but I also expect the tax burden to be fair…so I can live with that.
That is the current Obama Tax plan.
Right but at some point, apparently many of us believe and are ready for a further tax increase that does affect us. The debt has gone up rather fast as you know and paying it down will not be easy without large cuts or new revenues.
Thanks for bringing this up, because all these people moaning about tax increases was driving me crazy.
If in a few years the economy recovers, tax revenue will go up automatically, especially when the Bush tax cuts expire. If the economy does not improve, then it would be stupid to increase taxes period. Even if there is a small increase, the goal of reducing income inequity would mean it unlikely that those just getting by would see any increases.
I expect that the Social Security cap to go up more, so I will pay more taxes, but that makes SS more progressive.
I hope gas taxes go up. Setting the price at $4 is a terrible idea, since then the market would shoot the price to $4 and the government would get nothing. I higher tax increases price pressure and thus should help reduce consumption while guaranteeing revenue.
I agree with other posters that Obama’s tax plan is likely to see many changes and adjustments based off the circumstances of the time and revisions by Congress.
He has made it pretty clear that he intends to eventually raise (or let the tax cuts expire - however you want to phrase it) the top 2 tax brackets back to their pre-Bush rates (From 33 to 36 percent, and from 35 to 39.6 percent), which (based off 2009 tax tables not 2008) would currently affect single individuals with taxable incomes over $171,550, and married filing joint copules with taxable incomes over $200,300. The proposed hiking up of the capital gains tax rate will affect a lot more than 3% of taxpayers as well (even now when most people havent seen capital gains from the sale of stocks because of the market bust, qualified dividends from stock ownership are still taxed at the long term capital gains rate)
As a licensed CPA in the field of public tax accounting that has dealt with many tax code revisions and adjustments for over 20 years, I can attest that the plan that eventually gets passed through Congress will almost certainly bear only passing resemblence to the outlined plan Obama’s campaign put forth - either for better or worse.