More orwellian ideology from the new administration

I don't like the idea of tracking the movements of American citizens for *any* reason. It seems to me that the expense of setting up and implementing something like this would be prohibitive unless they expect the consumers to pay for the device and individual station owners to pay for upgraded pumps.

That is absolutely ridiculous, we are already taxed on gas. I can't imagine this will do much good for the hybrid car industry if people are going to be taxed by the mile anyway. Not to mention the fact that nobody wants their car to be tracked by the government. Something like a price floor on gasoline.. that would actually make sense. It will be a lot easier for families and businesses to budget if they are sure that the price of gas won't go down.

This story was in the Miami Herald months ago. I thought I'd started a thread on it then, but maybe I forgot. Either way it pissed me off beyond all belief. It's nobody's Godd@mn business how much I drive or where I drive to. Oh yeah, I remember the big thing I brought up about this. They want to raise taxes, to waste billions of dollars in taxpayer money on this massive ridiculous system that invades our privacy, so they can use it to raise taxes to fund highway improvements. So even beyond the Orwellian bit, which is very applicable to this, it's a massive waste of money designed to steal more of our money. Does anyone else see how stupid it is to raise taxes to fund something to raise taxes?

Thankfully, it is not going to happen. Obama nixed it.

Xfahctor, This "big brother" mentality just brings this country ever closer to the brink of her second civil war or revolution, whichever one suit your purpose. I wonder how many people will be "surprised" at this inevitable outcome of a forced socialistic government? By the way; is it just me or do I remember the liberals crying fowl very loudly when GWB instituted wire-taps without warrants? Talk about a double standard on invasion of privacy!

They shot down the idea for today at least. They will just tax gas more instead it seems. Nothing like helping the economy by encouraging people not to drive to work or vacation or even the store to shop. I guess so many people are angry that we are going to bail out all the people who took bad loans on houses that they couldn't afford. I guess it is only selected socialism since all of us who did what we should have won't be getting any help, just screwed.

Are you sure he is a Republican? Maybe he joined the Republican to undermine it. I do not like the idea. It would discourage travel. Then only the rich people can leave their cities and towns. The rest of you will have to walk to where you want to go. And could not this be used to track where you go if you were to go somewhere that they do not want you to go? Like what if someone knew someone who lived in an area with a lot of crime, then the gps could be used against him to make the police believe he was friends with criminals, so this is more then making sure you do not take any long trips unless you are flush with cash.

Thankfully I also heard that President Obama has come out against this idea. I sure HOPE he holds to it because that is absolutely outrageous and not only because of the money. I've felt kind of uneasy about these GPS devices from the time I've known of their existence; it's great to have something to help you when you're lost or to give you directions but the idea that somebody is watching me gives me the creeps. The Post Office had started using them to track the carriers several years ago before I left. They supposedly were not to be used for disciplinary actions but that was a crock, it was a way to keep track of where we were at all times. Technology can be a wonderful thing but in the wrong hands it's pretty scary stuff. Annie