Real estate salesman Dino Rossi will introduce his transportation plan Tuesday morning, and I can’t help but wonder what it might include. More freeways and wider bridges? Foot-ferries and monorails? An utterly fucking ridiculous deep bore tunnel? Well one thing I’m pretty damn sure it won’t include are HOV lanes, because as he told KUOW’s Ross Reynolds back in January of 2003, Rossi doesn’t believe in rewarding drivers for (gasp) carpooling.
[audio:http://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/rossi_hov_2003-1-8.mp3]REYNOLDS: Wouldn’t opening up the HOV lanes during the middle of the day make it harder for those who have voluntarily decided to carpool or those who’ve decided to ride buses – those who some would argue are being good citizens by not driving on the highways – wouldn’t it make it harder for them to get to their destinations when some would argue they should be rewarded with a single lane that they can use exclusively during that part of the day?
ROSSI: Well, you’re absolutely right that there are tie-ups in the middle of the day and much of that is because there are car accidents during the middle of the day, and the whole point of spacing these cars further – improving the capacity on state 405 – would probably relieve a number of those congestion problems, because people wouldn’t be getting hurt and getting in car accidents. Picking people and rewarding them for what you believe or others believe is the proper way to commute I don’t believe is the right method.
There you have it… transportation expert Dino Rossi pinpoints our congestion problem on too many car accidents! So why hasn’t Gov. Gregoire done anything about that, huh?! (I bet it’s because she’s in the pocket of Olympia’s powerful car accident lobby.)
As for carpool lanes, who needs ’em? After all, according to WSDOT, they only “move approximately one third of the people on the freeways in only 18 percent of the vehicles, and carry approximately 52 percent more people per lane than other freeway lanes during prime commuting hours.” And while a 2004 survey showed that 96% of Puget Sound drivers use HOV lanes, and an overwhelming majority consider them a good idea, convenient, and a fair use of taxpayer money… well… I suppose Rossi and his advisers at the Discovery Institute simply know better than us common folk.
If you want to try to fix everything but the problem you need liberals. Rossi will do well and offer hope to a hopeless transportation mess you libs created.
Give us a break Goldy, everybody knows that the HOV “one third of the people on the freeways in only 18 percent of the vehicles” is during commute hours. What’s that got to do with opening the carpool lanes at mid-day? Nothing.
And do you really think that people on the road at mid-day have car pooling as an option? Maybe you should prove that they do (fat chance).
Oh wait a minute, sorry, I get it now. You are paid to criticize Rossi, in advance, for something you think he might advocate (and to distort his previous statement to boot). Classy move, your blogging liberally advertisers expect nothing less from you.
Instead of your typical BS criticising Rossi how bout telling us how the Gov has solved a single transportation problem in the region? Just one will be a start.
Oh and by the way, the deep bore tunnel is not as ridiculous as you make it out to be.
It contrasts nicely with the gov’s (non existent) plan for moving I-5 traffic through the Seattle bottleneck. And it’s the only plan “on the table”.
What do you want to bet that Rossi’s “plan” includes funding from the 9 cent gas tax increase…you know, the one that he wouldn’t take a stand on back when 912 was on the ballot?
Again, for the reading-impaired, here’s the WSDOT list of completed projects:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/completed.htm
If you don’t read because you don’t want to, you must be a Rossi Republican.
Why don’t we get unlicensed drivers and uninsured vehicle off the road? I propose we impound them. I believe it is the law to have insurance and a license. Let’s enforce it. I am already paying for uninsured drivers on my indurance. I’d like that bill to go down.
We haven’t got enough police to deal with the present levels of crime. No money to hire more. Why do you hate the police so. They would be so overworked they’ll probably make mistakes. Which will compound the problem.
#1 I give Eyeman alot of credit for screwing up our transportation infastructure.
Did Dino get his transportation expert license at the same place he got his non-existent real estate broker’s license?
Zip @3,
Really, Zip, “it’s the only plan on the table”…? That’s an incredibly stupid argument even by HA comment threads’ low, low standard of incredible stupidity.
We don’t dig a giant tunnel because it’s “the only plan on the table,” and besides, there are plenty of other plans, including my Seattle Rollercoaster Project, which by the way, has as much chance of being constructed as Discovery’s head up their ass deep bore tunnel. I hope Rossi proposes the Discovery tunnel today, because it will prove what mindless tool he really is.
Rossie is a proovn genius, and you librals shoud just shut t.f. up and do whathever he sais.
Besides, he has the nicest haircut besides Dave “I Almost Solved the Green River Case Almost” Reichart.
Goldy
YOU are supposed to be the political wonk.
Like it or not, Rossi is proposing a PLAN. You know like Burner proposed a plan. That is a political gesture and for some fucking insensible reason our Gubernator seems not to understand that she is a politician.
‘
Forgive me ofr saying so, but I doubt that Jill Undecided, living in Tacoma gives a royal fart about the details of a plan. What she will see is that business like Rossi is doing something bureaucrat Gregoire ain’t doing .. making a plan. The analogy to your own writing on Burner is too close for comfort.
Let me move the heat up a notch. John McCain gave a very impressive speech today with a detailed PLAN for tax and spending reform. One elememtn that he pushed was set asides. Recently Reichert has said much the same thing about set asides .. that is they are BAD!
I am supporting Burner and Gregoire BUT, I am very concerned that they are leaving a huge door open to reform repricans b y running, as is your push here, againstt Bush and the Religour Right Radical Repricans.
Howsa about we bet a burger? I predict that there will be an effort, under John McCain to relabel his aprty as a reform party. Specifics will include choice of a credible veep who is nOT a radical reprican. Snegger and maybe Buffet and Balmer may figure priminently in this effort.
In this state, it would mean Rossi detailing a plan like McCains’s for tax reform and one building on Bush for education reform. He will attack Gregoire for the up and down budgeting and lack of long term state plans.
Will Rossi win? I don’t know. B ut, I do know that Gregoire’s last cmapign suffered form a Mark Penn like negativity that almost cost her the election. If she tries again to run againstt Dino based on his religion or his race. she will lose big time!
I am much more optimistic about Burner. She is intrinsically more impressive than the sheriff but she too could be hurt by a weak Gregoire campaign, esp. if Reichert paints her as a creature of Move-On and outsider forces while he himself is a local.
*******************************
So here is the essence of my bet:
I predict Rossi’s them will eb a responsible plan, with long term proposals for reform in educatio and taxation. He will insist that CG’s focus on issues of woman’s rights is sexist and irrelevant to the governor’s job.
We can use any mutual person as a judge ,, my wife?
HA comment threads’ low, low standard of incredible stupidity.
Hey!
Well, OK…
11 SZ
I heard McCain. His “plan?” Keep the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (again benefiting the rich). No mention of how to pay for our government without these sources of revenue.
Also, of course, gut SS in the name of making it “solvent.”
A winning ticket, and oh-so-moderate. More of the same Bush plan. Grampie McSame shot himslef in the foot today.
Jew @11,
My God, this region is lousy with plans! Everybody’s got a goddamn plan, and Rossi trodding out Discover’s faith-based bullshit won’t make it happen.
And… go visit the WSDOT website once in a while and take a gander at what is already being done. Rossi’s a lightweight on transportation issues, forever in the pocket of Kemper Freeman Jr. and John Stanton… and he’ll prove it today.
Transportation issues have been on the front burner for the last 4 years and longer, and up until today, Mr. Rossi has been virtually silent on them. If he had any leadership to offer on the subject, why would he wait until 7 months before the election to share it with us??? I suspect his “plan” will be another partisan hack-job written by roads lobbyists, not by transportation pros.
If Rossi’s a lightweight, that must mean our current and former Governors are heavyweights when it comes to transportation issues? By looking around at the transportation mess we’re in today, you could have fooled me.
@5 Daddy Love, I went thru each of the 1st 12 projects on the WSDOT site, here’s how they were paid for and completion dates:
1) Cable Medians…………2003 & 2005 gas tax
2) I182 & US395 exchange….completed in 2003 (before CG)
3) I205 Mill Plain…..2005 gas tax
4) I405 Access Downtown….2003 Centennial Accord Plan.. no gas tax (before CG)
5) I405 Canyon Park……Sound Transit (no gas tax)
6)SR167 Ramp….completed March 2004 (before CG)
7) I5 2nd Street Bridge…..2003 Gas tax (before CG)
8) I5 32nd Avenue……2003 gas tax (before CG)
9) I5 Ash Way….Sound Transit
10) I5 Corridor NE 78th……completed Nov 2002 (well before CG)
11) I5 & I205 N fort Lewis….100% federal funds
12) I5 James Olive Repave….completed Oct 2005 all existing funds
I see out of the first 12 projects listed on the WSDOT only 2 actually use the 2005 gas tax for funding, most were in the process of or completed before we voted CG in. So, yes she really needs to step up the transportation issues. The 9 cent gas tax in 2005 was an “emergency” gas tax to repair/replace the viaduct, I recall. If Dino comes along and plays this card and people do the research as I have just done….well we see what that got me.
Picking people and rewarding them for what you believe or others believe is the proper way to commute I don’t believe is the right method.
Applying his logic to pharmacists, should we also …reward some pharmacists for what some pharmacists believe is the right way to dispense medication…? In other words, he doesn’t think some interest group should be able to interfere with an individual’s right to do what they want to do if it is legal and nobody else’s business (drive in an SOV) — therefore, he also should agree that it is NOT OK for some group of pharmacists to interfere with a woman getting emergency contraception, which is also legal and nobody else’s business.
I know, I know. You’re going to tell me ‘consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.’
@2 zip, Gregoire is at least trying to move 520 plans forward. I haven’t heard any ‘plan’ from Rossi on that. I look forward to it, though, it will probably resemble Clay Bennett’s arena proposal (=boondoggle with public subsidy to Kemper Freeman)
I assume that Rossi is going to appeal to his base and the rural or rural/suburban fringes. I doubt he will see much political benefit in proposing an idea which appeals primarily to Seattle residents, such as mass transit within the urban Seattle core, since he won’t get many of those votes anyway.
Of course, one of the things which galls his wealthy supporters to no end is carpool lanes, because (a) they would never consider carpooling, (b) they would never ride a bus along with the unwashed masses. In contrast, they think they are more important than the peons who ride the buses, and think the HOV lanes should be converted to their use, with a toll imposed to ensure that only the wealthy can use it, not the peons which have to ride busses or carpool.
Of course, the Rossi supporters will write off the toll fees as a “business expense” anyway, like they do all of their car expenses, which means that it comes out as a wash in total tax revenue collected (what the state gets as tolls, the federal government doesn’t get as income tax revenue, but the less it has available to help fund transportation projects).
If anyone hasn’t guessed – I hate toll roads.
By the way, I’m playing around my gravitars, so don’t pay too much attention to them. Apparantly it takes some time for them to change. The picture of the lady isn’t me. The picture of “flying dog” isn’t me. The picture of the guy with a beard is me, but that was taken a long time ago – my hair and beard have a lot of grey in them now.
Off topic, but time-sensitive: Tank McNamara on the last Sonics games:
http://www.gocomics.com/tankmcnamara/index.phtml
17 Hannah
That’s an amazing observation, given that the page says “Some of these projects were part of 2003 Nickel Package of transportation funding. Some are from the 2005 Transportation Partnership Funding program. Others are funded from WSDOT’s “pre-existing” funds.”
Hey, I had a thought. What if you spent a moment more and looked over the well over 200 current projects (I stopped counting at 100 and scrolled down through more than I had counted) on the projects page (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/)? You know, it’s not like they’re not doing anything.
So how fast could Dino Rossi finish big projects? That is, without breaking the law?
Rossi’s telling us the same old story. What to do about population growth? Cut taxes, cut government services, build more roads, oppose any transit, and funnel people out to the (now dying) exurbs, forcing them to drive.
We’ve seen how that works…time for a more fuel-efficient solution.
Matt Iglesias:
http://matthewyglesias.theatla.....4/oily.php
Dino Rossi — the opposite of prudent.
Daddy Love @12: LOL. Goldy, I resemble that comment!
@23: Daddy Love
I just went to the site – many, many completed projects and yes – most funded with 2003 or 2005 taxes. I don’t know what Hannah is talking about – looking at the first twelve – they are not in chronological order – I think they are by region.
I just love the republican trolls on here who claim that:
1. There is a traffic mess (where were they supporting the solutions that we had on the ballot, like roads and transit – NOWHERE). They deserve to sit in traffic. To then blame Gregoire because the conservatives opposed taxes and roads – I love it. Take no reponsibility, claim you love the initiative process and then complain when the Republicans oppose taxes for solutions to our traffic mess and blame the problems on the democrats who proposed actual solutions.
If Gregoire had actually pushed through transportation fixes the republican hypocrites would have complained about the taxes and that she was subverting the will of the people.
Definition: Republicans – Hypocrites who think government can do nothing and then complain when they block it from solving problems.
Yup, the republicans idea of an energy policy is to let the “free market” rule. Of course there is no “free market” – oil companies control the entire process
@27 – They are not by region. What I was pointing out is linking that particular page (as DL did) and sending people to look at it for them to realize most the completed projects (which is the page DL linked) were completed or funded before CG…way to go…give someone links to give them ammo about our “lack of” transportation goals. He did not link CURRENT projects, but was trying to point out the COMPLETED projects, which is the type of ammo Dinosaurus will use.
Regarding the 2005 “emergency” gas tax, was it or was it not put up to us voters based on emergency road work consisting of the AWV???
My guess is that Rossi will propose the commuter lanes be renamed “Elitist” lanes. The mere shame of being considered elitist will drive Democrats out of these lanes, leaving them open for the Rovian-Republican everyman. Problem solved.
@30 – yes Bill and Melinda, Howard and company and most Boeing execs will be the only ones in those lanes, since none of us middle class folks will not be able to afford them! Maybe we can do this as they drive by:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GdPiYfzw7fQ
McCains economic “plans:”
– Double the size of the Bush tax cuts, costing more than $2 trillion in their first decade.
– Do virtually nothing for the middle class: only 9 percent of the tax cuts will go to the bottom 80 percent of households, while 58 percent will go to the top 1 percent of households.
– Follow Grover Norquist’s blueprint that’s been called a “stealth approach to tax reform” – and that aims to abandon progressive taxation in favor of a wage tax imposed mainly on low- and middle-income households.
According to the New York Times, his chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, “said that if the war and the personal and corporate tax cuts that Mr. McCain advocated added to the federal deficit and debt, so be it.”
http://thinkprogress.org/wonkr.....st-agenda/
29 Hannah
Projects are not the same as goals. I could point you to WSDOT goals, but it would be character-building for you to find out for yourself.
30 & 31: Funny how Republicans in this state hate HOV lanes as being too “socialistic”, but instead prefer toll lanes which are more like the center lanes in Russia reserved for use by those in power (politically or economically).
Remember the big push to open the carpool lanes outside of the commute times? Beginning a couple of years ago, I-405 the carpool lane becomes a general purpose lane after 7:00 p.m. Supposedly the extra lane would allow more cars to get through if there was an obstruction?
I remember how well that worked out, in the snow/ice storm which hit during the evening commute – I think it was the Monday after Thanksgiving. I left Bellevue just before 7:00 p.m. and headed north towards Everett. Unfortunately, I turned on the Seahawks game on my radio instead of listening for traffic info. Right after the Totem Lake exits, I hit a wall of traffic which was moving about 1 mph. I learned later that the problem occured at the bottom of the interchange to Woodenville, where a bus and a tractor-trailer slid into each other, blocking all lanes.
Now, normally tow trucks could use the HOV lanes to get to the problem and tow the obstructing vehicles. But guess what? At 6:59 PM every car in the fast lane switched over the the HOV lane, and within two minutes it was filled with several miles of traffic, all of which was stalled. Tow and sanding trucks couldn’t squeeze by on the shoulders becuase they were blocked by stalled cars (ran out of gas, couldn’t make the hills in the ice, or car batteries died while idling with all power accesseries turned on).
Yep, that worked out real well (insert overly sarcastic smirk-smily thing here). I got home about 5:00 a.m. the next morning, thanks to those jerks who might feel they have the right to use the HOV lanes in off-hours if it will save then three minutes of driving time.
Goldy, Goldy, Goldy you must know by now that Dino is not a detail guy, not interested in numbers (unless the numbers are preceded by a $ sign).
Still, like you, I am holding my breath in anticipation of the BIG Rossi “progressive” roads plan.
McCain is announcing his new plan to deal with rising gas prices. He wants us to have a “gas tax holiday”. Sounds popular, right? Of course, the fact that he will be starving the government of funds needed for transportation projects he can conveniently ignore for a while longer, right?
Of course, first of all there is the continuing political problem that transportation projects aren’t “sexy”, they cost a lot of money, and it is politically easier to put them off for a few years and let somebody else deal with the consequences. It seems that McCain is squarely in that camp. From his perspective, it makes sense, because by the time bridges start falling throughout the U.S., he will be dead or in a nursing home, and won’t remember a thing.
As for gas prices, as has been proven over the past few months, the current problem isn’t about a lack of supply. There is plenty of crude oil available on the world markets. The problem is that (a) the value of the dollar has dropped to a new cellar, so the value of oil as a commodity has risen; and (b) the oil companies are stretching their legs and seeing how high they can raise prices without causing a significant drop in demand (total revenue). They know that once we get used to going over the $4.00 a gallon ceiling, demand will return to normal, because transportation is not an elastic supply/demand dichotomy. The result? If you drop the taxes, gas prices will drop temporarily, but soon prices will rise back to pretty much the same level as they are now.
So what McCain is proposing is, in effect, a tax cut which will translate into profits for the oil company, but nothing more than a temporary (a few days maybe?) of prices to the consumer.
Of course, there is always the chance that the oil companies will manipulate the prices for political purposes. I used to be skeptical that they could (or would) do that, but the price drop in late October 2006, and corresponding rise beginning the day after the election, is too convenient timing to attribute to random chance.
Goldy @9:
“We don’t dig a giant tunnel because it’s “the only plan on the table,” and besides, there are plenty of other plans, including my Seattle Rollercoaster Project, which by the way, has as much chance of being constructed as Discovery’s head up their ass deep bore tunnel. I hope Rossi proposes the Discovery tunnel today, because it will prove what mindless tool he really is.”
Your wish is his command!
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.....136538.asp
—-
Rossi favors viaduct tunnel replacement
GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi said Tuesday he would replace Seattle’s aging, earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel.
Rossi made the viaduct announcement as he unveiled his transportation plan. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels had pushed for a tunnel replacement for the viaduct but state leaders rejected the idea as too costly.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, and city and state leaders have yet to come up with a plan for what to do about the viaduct.
Since Nickels’ tunnel idea died various ideas have been floated – including simply rebuilding the structure along Seattle’s waterfront and tearing it down completely and rerouting traffic on surface streets.
—————–
Is he planning on paying for it by massively raising taxes, or implementing massive deficit spending?
A big tunnel? Sounds so…..so ANAL…
Seattle Mike at 38: Rossi’s plan is to pay for it by allocating 40% of all auto sales tax revenue to the tunnel project. Of course, he doesn’t say how he will handle the loss of revenue which is already allocated for other purposes.
Typical Republican fiscal planning. Promise the voters something popular even if you can’t afford it (tax cuts, tunnel, War in Iraq, etc.), and then leave it to the Democrats to clean up the mess afterwards.
Actually, I’m all in favor of a tunnel, one that by-passes downtown Seattle completely (entrances/exits only on north and south end, no central downtown entrance or exit). I think it’s the best long-term solution to the problem, and it fixes the sea-wall at the same time. But it can’t be funded without a very big boost from the federal government, or a reform of our existing, antiquated, obsolete taxing structure.
@13 Daddy Love
McCain’s plan was definitively NOT a “keep the course” statement. In fact someone asked him about that and he said it was foolish to offer tax cuts without fiscal reform.
I can not regurgitate all that he said, but just focussing on issues that I think are likley to resonate with voters:
on the tax side.
1. middle class tax reform including suspension of the AMT and development of an alternative tax that those who do not want to fill out a full form can submit.
2. permananent commitment to R&D tax credits.
non the fiscal side:
1. line item veto.
2. abolishing set asides.
3. 1 year moratorium on spending increases during which long term spending plasns will be developed for all programs.
+++++++++++++
I would be upset by some of this, but that is not the point. The point is that it well thought through and a hell f a lot meatier than anything the dems have so far come up with.
As one example, Hillary’s version of health care reform involves a huge redistribution of funds to the tax system. While I personally think her plan is sound fiscally, defending it against the absence of broad reform would be nealry impossible.
The same issue pertains to Darcy in general. Ger RP for Iraq dpends, as he herself says, on a while list of other legislative reforms. If REichert takes the high ground in that area he may be able to undermine her work on the RP.
Oh look! I hate to be right:
-Replace the Highway 520 Floating Bridge with an eight-lane bridge.
First on the list of Rossi’s projects at the Times website. Cause we all know that SR520 needs to be at least at big as I90!
Oh, and with McSame announcing that he would cut the national gas tax, I suppose there goes a lot of highway funds. I wonder how Rossi plans to make up for that? Maybe Dino can have himself sold as crude oil at $114 per barrel!
@14 Goldy
“My God, this region is lousy with plans! “
TO BE READ ONLY BY GOLDY:
Goldy,
My son, thank you for the appellation but could we keep your acknowledgment of my coming between us?. In return, when the time has come I will give you the scoop.
An Avatar
Everybody’s got a goddamn plan, and Rossi trodding out Discover’s faith-based bullshit won’t make it happen.
And… go visit the WSDOT website once in a while and take a gander at what is already being done. Rossi’s a lightweight on transportation issues, forever in the pocket of Kemper Freeman Jr. and John Stanton… and he’ll prove it today.
Yeh sure, ga betcha. BUT .. you ain’t typical. Most folks are unaware of the plethora of plans or professional work by the bureaucrats BUT .. they do not expect much from the bureaucrats either. They expect decsions and leadership to come from the elected.
That is how she screwed up Prop 1. YOU said she supported it and she did sorta. But she was sorta invisible too. Many people who voted again Prop 1 did so because they did not want to trust unelected bureaucrats with their tax dollars.
Leaving the DI aside, if Rossi pulls a Darcy and announces a RP for transportation, Gregoire will be one upped. Saying we do not need a plan because their are laready penty of them will just feed her image as the head bureauocrat.
As for the DI, you and I agree BUT again I do not think CG can get away with demonizing these folks.
If I were her, I would generate a “plan for the state asap. In the Darcy mode, I would do all I could to have the thing look as if IMPORTANT peole were aboard and by imporntta I do not mean the bureaucrats. It woudl be GREAT of she could get Boeing and MS and ?? to add their voice to some plan.
Alternatively, CG controls a consultant foirm with several thousand high paid folks that work for her for free. As gubernator why not request the UW and Wazu use their talents to propose a plan?
The tunnel idea is not only stupid, but his method of financing it may well cost him votes in his strong areas. Somehow, I cannot see the folks over in Yakima being really happy about the idea of paying for a very expensive tunnel for Seattle.
Oh, and Goldy? Mr. Rossi apparently hasn’t done a real estate deal in years. His license is inactive, and as far as I can tell, it hasn’t been active for quite a while.
While it would be interesting to have him working as an agent (it would certainly enliven some of the political discussions around here), I doubt that Mr. Rossi would be able to write a simple listing or sale agreement without help.
If a person doesn’t sell cars, he isn’t a car salesman. Since Mr. Rossi doesn’t sell real estate, he isn’t a real estate salesperson.
And while it would surprise me if he doesn’t eventually get the endorsement of the Washington Realtors, it is interesting to note that they have held back for now.
More than a few of us are pretty happy with Governor Gregoire, and will be very unhappy if our association endorses Mr. Rossi.
rhp6033 spewed:
………….As for gas prices, as has been proven over the past few months, the current problem isn’t about a lack of supply. There is plenty of crude oil available on the world markets. The problem is that (a) the value of the dollar has dropped to a new cellar, so the value of oil as a commodity has risen; and (b) the oil companies are stretching their legs and seeing how high they can raise prices without causing a significant drop in demand (total revenue). They know that once we get used to going over the $4.00 a gallon ceiling, demand will return to normal, because transportation is not an elastic supply/demand dichotomy. The result? If you drop the taxes, gas prices will drop temporarily, but soon prices will rise back to pretty much the same level as they are now.
And so?? What is your point? The fact is that oil is in tight supply and the companies are doing what JS Mill said to do … make a buck.
What McCain is proposing is, in effect, a tax cut which will translate into profits for the oil company, but nothing more than a temporary (a few days maybe?) of prices to the consumer.
On this we agree. In fact I would rather see us go the other way, bid up the price of oil to minimize its use.
41 TBG
It’s “stay the course.”
Repealing the AMT is not a “middle class tax reform.” Just as the AMT itself is a way to make sure that high-income taxpayers pay their fair share, but ended up with a bracket creep problem, repealing it is a way of enabling BIG tax ciuts for REALLY rich people, with a few of UPPER middle class payers affected along the way due to the same bracket creep. The solution is to fix the bracket creep, not eliminate the tax. BTW, I watched him today and McCain didn’t say “suspend” the AMT, he PROMISED “repeal.”
Why would R&D tax credits “resonate” with voters? How many voters know or care?
And again ICYDK, it is not within the president’s power to “abolish set asides” (earmarks). And if you think that a majority Democratic Congress is going to do that for a Republican president, or that the Republican minority would not block such legislation with a Demcratic president, you’re very naive.
Oops. Just heard, the association endorsed Rossi again. Guess I won’t be sending anything in to RPAC (Realtors Political Action Committee) this year.
I suppose that it shouldn’t surprise me. The biggest contributors to RPAC are developers, after all, and those of us that aren’t right wingers haven’t been big contributors to RPAC for several years.
I agree with Daddy Love, the only problem with the AMT is bracket creep. Fix that, and you have a simple solution.
But the reason it hasn’t been fixed yet is that the AMT is figured into all the budget projections, even though the big hit keeps getting pushed back on a year-by-year basis. In other words, we are counting on income from a tax which is too politically unpopular to ever really collect.
And this doesn’t even get into the cost of the Iraq War, which still isn’t even included in the budget (using emergency supplemental appropriations instead), and passing as much of that cost as possible to future budget cycles (meaning we won’t see the real cost until at least two or three years from now).
As soon as there is a permanant fix to the AMT, and the cost of the Iraq war is folded into the budget, the budget deficit will, on paper, expand considerably. Of course, the Bush administration doesn’t want that to happen on their watch, they want it to happen during a Democratic administration. For their partison political purposes, they figure they can argue in future years that the budge deficits under the next Democratic administration were worse than they were under the Bush administration, and hope you don’t remember it’s all because they were using smoke and mirrors in their accounting methods.
This is what the commute from Federal Way will look like after Gov. Dinosour repeals the gas tax. http://tinyurl.com/5f36t6
Of course McCain would want a line-item veto. If he were President he would be facing a Democratic Congress. He will want to let the Republicans and Democrats in Congress hammer out a compromise, and then with his pen he can eliminate the items favorable to Democrats, but keep in the ones the Republicans want. He can even make sure that any projects which make a Democractic Congressman look good to his district gets cut, while rewarding Republican districts.
@3 Maybe you wingnuts who favor suspending the gas tax so oil companies can reap more profit will explain how we’re going to PAY for this multibillion-dollar tunnel? By printing more paper money so eggs and bread will cost even more?
Republicans love inflation because it lowers real wages.
What I can’t figure out, though — and I suspect Republicans haven’t figured it out, either — is who will buy anything from them after no one has any money.
@50 McCain can want a line-item veto all he wants but he won’t get it.
Every president in living memory has wanted a line-item veto. It hasn’t happened yet, and it won’t happen in this millenium.
That was classic, Goldy.
You can tell Rossi’s belly-flop plan was carefully drafted by such cow-tipping geniuses as Michael Ennis (of the Washington Policy Center) and William Jennings Bryan (chief transportation planner at the Discovery Institute).
Wingnut gas-guzzling road warrior Roger Rabbit probably helped out: he’s excellent at crafting messages for the defeated old white guy demographic.
Hey, looks like Dino Lossi even primed Ken “Ed Anger” Schramm for Idiot Transportation Day:
http://www.komotv.com/news/17669954.html
The gun finally came out of Charlton Heston’s cold dead hands. I wonder when the lazy greybearded cranks will be willing to let go of their steering wheels?
@41 Well thought through? This is a joke, right?
Why would middle class voters give a shit about R&D tax credits? How about a tax credit to help offset the rising cost of living caused by the Bush administration printing paper money to pay for their wasteful spending priorities and misplaced tax cuts for those who need them least?
Spending freeze? Sure, when you figure out a way to freeze population growth.
What are you proposing as an alternative to Hillary’s health plan? More of the status quo? Latest wrinkle on status quo: Insurance companies are now refusing to pay for costly drugs, and policy holders (i.e., people who pay premiums to insurance companies so they won’t lose their homes and go bankrupt if they incur catastrophic medical expenses) are suddenly seeing their Rx bills rise from $10 a month to hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. Ain’t unregulated capitalism grand!
BTW, there is no “free market” in drugs. Most expensive brand name drugs have no competition. You either use Company X’s drug or you fucking die. That’s because drug companies don’t invest hundreds of millions of dollars in new drugs to drive down the other guy’s prices (and their own as well). Most new drugs have no substitute until the patents expire and generics enter the market. So, drug pricing is monopolistic, and insurance companies have just decided to pass monopoly prices on to their policyholders instead of, you know, insuring them.
Personally, I think our private health care system is so fucking bad even Castro’s system is better. And you want me to vote for the status quo? Fuck you, if it comes down to a choice between Hillary’s plan or what the greedy capitalists are dishing to us, I’ll vote for Hillarycare in a flash.
@55 You’re misinformed. I don’t love cars. My relatives get squashed by cars, so why would I like them? What do I need one for? It’s not my fault you humans are car-dependent. If you had evolved with bigger feet like I did you wouldn’t have all your car problems.
Continuation of # 48: For all their loft pronouncements about knowing how to run a business, and fiscal responsiblity, it appears that the only thing Republicans are good at is keeping a double set of books. And I’m not even talking about the embezzlement scandal in the Republican Congressional Committee to Re-Elect Republicans (or whatever the heck it is called).
Item # 1: Including the AMT in the budget revenue projections, but never collecting the tax (discussed in more detail in # 48).
Item # 2: Not including the cost of the Iraq or Afganistan wars in the budget, instead relying upon Emergency Supplemental Budgets for the past five years, and apparantly planning to do so again in this next budge cycle.
Item # 3: Changing the way the Consumer Price Index is calculated to include only “core inflation”. They simply deleted any price fluctuations in food or oil in the calculation.
As MSNBC reported today:
“Food and energy prices tend to move up and down more quickly than other goods, but lately they’ve only been moving in one direction. In the last three months, gasoline prices are up by a third and food prices are up 10 percent….
(The) Price of consumer goods other than food and energy are up 5.5 percent in the past three months. Analysts are expecting that trend to show up in the Consumer Price Index due out Wednesday.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24129957/
So even using the Republican’s phony books, “core inflation” is up 5.5% IN THE FIRST QUARTER of 2008. If this trend continues (and we can only pray that it doesn’t), we are approaching 22% annual inflation for the calendar year of 2008! And that’s not even including the price increases in oil and food! If the Republicans were keeping an honest set of books, they would see that we are already in double-digit inflation.
But hey, according to Bush, the economy is fundamentally sound, and we are just going through a bit of a rocky period….
I suspect the next thing we will be hearing is the Republicans blaming the Clinton or the Democratic Congress for the mess they created.
Rossi’s Transportation Plan
Well, here we go …
” … Dino Rossi this morning released a transportation plan that calls for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel and building a new Highway 520 floating bridge that can hold eight lanes of traffic.
“In addition to his plans for the viaduct and the 520 bridge, Rossi proposes widening Interstate 405 from Renton to Bellevue, and building a new four-lane, six-mile highway from Interstate 5 to Highway 7 in Pierce County.
“Rossi proposed paying for the work in part by spending a portion of the state sales taxes on new and used vehicles on transportation projects — a total of $7.7 billion over 30 years for transportation.
“That tax revenue currently goes to the state’s general fund where it’s spent on other programs. Rossi’s plan doesn’t say how he’d make up that money in the general fund.”
Quoted under fair use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....an15m.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Same old, same old. Propose huge spending without raising taxes by raiding other programs. Looks like Rossi’s planning to empty the prisons onto our streets so guys driving Hummers can get to work 5 minutes faster.
Rossi wants to spend over $15 billion on roads over the next 30 years. There are only 3 places in the state budget you can get that kind of money from:
Education
Transportation
Medicaid
Rossi’s plan is here:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....350257.pdf
This “plan” is such a joke I don’t even know where to begin. Start with page 3: “the state refuses to focus on congestion relief.”
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/congestion/
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/congestion/
Oops. I guess when DOT focuses on congestion, in Rossiland they are not focusing on congestion.
Let’s move on to the biggest whopper of them all, on page 6: “transit has always been planned, and managed, at the local level. The state should not meddle in local transit decisions.”
How does he then propose to pay for part of his plan? By taking money from locally voter approved and managed Sound Transit, of course! Take a look at page 4: “half of the current and future eastside subarea equity Sound Transit surplus.”
So basically, we shouldn’t meddle in local transit decisions, except when I want to meddle in local transit decisions.
How does anybody take this douchebag seriously?
Only a Republican could whine and cry and blame a supposed $2.4 billion deficit on Governor Gregoire, then support Dino Rossi’s transportation “plan” to divert $10 billion out the the General Fund without replacing it.
Who are these idiots?
Rossi wants to spend over $15 billion on roads over the next 30 years. There are only 3 places in the state budget you can get that kind of money from:
Education
Transportation
Medicaid
No way….money for roads from the transportation budget???!! What an outrage. hehehehe
Rossi proposed paying for the work in part by spending a portion of the state sales taxes on new and used vehicles on transportation projects — a total of $7.7 billion over 30 years for transportation.
“That tax revenue currently goes to the state’s general fund where it’s spent on other programs. Rossi’s plan doesn’t say how he’d make up that money in the general fund.”
Yikes, no wonder this state is so FU. This is hilarious. Why should any money spent on vehicles go to the general fund??? It should all go to transportation.