More Proof They Despise Flyover Country
Infrastructure boondoggle shows how little they care for us
Today’s post is slightly outside of any real or perceived expertise I possess. I’m not in politics or government. However, the issues are critical for Flyover Country and demonstrate the MERC’s (managerial experts, ruling class) contempt for residents of Flyover Country. Let’s start with some basic economics, though. The more than $1,000,000,000,000 “Infrastructure” Bill (passed Tuesday) comes at a time of rising inflation that threatens to raise costs even more as this money floods into the economy. The poorest among us will feel this the most, as it costs more to do everything from buy groceries to fill up their car to commute to work.
And therein, as the bard says, lies the rub.
Hidden within this bill is a carveout of at least $50 million to study the viability of a “VMT”. What is “VMT”? It stands for “vehicle miles traveled”. The language in the bill allows Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to award grants to local and/or regional entities that will pilot projects of this VMT tax.
This is the guy tasked with awarding said grants to study said, and how gullible he thinks the average Flyover Country resident is.
According to the bill’s text, all drivers, whether the run of the mill soccer mom or an over the road (OTR) trucker (who might also be a soccer mom), would be asked to participate in the volunteer pilot with participants needed from all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The Department of Transportation (DOT) would then calculate drivers’ payments on a quarterly basis.
Why should Flyover Country care?
We’re more spread out. We already pay exorbitant fuel taxes in some states that purportedly provide funds to keep roads and bridges in good condition, though to drive on most roads and interstates, you’d hardly know it. Adding a tax on the miles driven disproportionately targets rural residents of Flyover Country.
See, most of the MERC live in large urban corridors. Perhaps they take public transportation or mass transit. They likely have access to special transports (limos and shuttles) that carry around very important people like themselves (or in Pete’s case, have security drop him and his bike off a few blocks from work). Many of them that own cars, likely are early adopters of electric vehicles, proudly touring in their Tesla’s. This tax won’t affect the way they live. And just like Obama’s “in your face” birthday party, that’s the point.
These bills don’t require them to change their lives one bit.
These aren’t people that have to drive 35 miles or more each way to work daily because they can’t afford housing closer to their places of work. They aren’t farmers or ranchers who have large acreage spread out over dozens of miles that they must drive to in order to make a living. The MERC live in a bubble that limits their perspective. They can’t grasp why being taxed for miles driven might infuriate tens of millions of people scattered throughout Flyover Country.
But this is all part of the plan.
Just like Joe Biden’s Executive Order mandating that half of all new cars sold by 2030 must be electric, it’s about limiting your freedom of movement. Hard to pursue happiness when you can’t afford to drive your car. Even harder to pursue it when you can’t afford the electric cars they’re forcing on you.
Even if you can afford an electric car, here’s what it will look like when you need to recharge on the road:
Hard to pursue happiness when you’re stuck in the 21st century equivalent of a 1970’s gas line. Forget about driving from say Iowa to Yellowstone. Probably not a lot of convenient charging stations, let alone a sufficient amount, along the way. Charging per mile driven or mandating electric cars at this time is putting the proverbial cart before the horse.
They don’t care.
As I mentioned in my last post (The MERC are Modern-Day Sadducees), the MERC view Flyover Country as a threat to their sophisticated world. We helped install Donald Trump, an outsider and heretic to their way of life, into the White House. They fear we might do something like that with DeSantis or another America First type in 2024. They can’t have that.
Have you noticed how many attendees from January 6th continue to be held in pre-trial detention, frequently in a type of solitary confinement? We’ve got Soviet style gulags in Washington D.C. housing Trump supporters. Don’t think for a second they care about due process or will lose sleep if you suddenly can’t afford to drive to work.
Read Julie Kelly’s work with American Greatness or follow her on Twitter to see how the Biden Regime treats Flyover Country types.
They plan to make our lives as difficult as possible in the coming years in a cynical attempt to break us, while simultaneously concocting ways to cement one-party rule (their rule) in perpetuity through federalization of elections (H.R. 1’s “For the People” Act).
You’re being forced to wear masks now when they don’t have to. They want to force the vaccines on you to even maintain your standard of living or simply support yourself and your family. They now aim to eliminate your freedom of movement.
Traveled by plane lately? It’s a dystopian hellscape. Air travel, post-9/11, already required significant sacrifices, particularly for the less privileged, less affluent residents. Now? Most airlines and their employees act like the hall monitors of the sky, making unreasonable demands on children and adults, particularly around masking. The “Karens” of the airline industry strive to save America from the scourge of Flyover Country residents who dare travel the now less than friendly skies.
You likely naively thought you could just drive more, but they thought of that, too. Now, they target your ground-based transportation. They saw how the lockdowns limited your ability to travel or move about, which made us easier to control and simultaneously reduced (temporarily) emissions, which fuel (pun intended) their climate change hysterical fantasies.
The VMT limits YOUR ability and your rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It doesn’t change their abilities to do that one iota. Think this bill will affect Mitch McConnell or Mitt Romney? Think Cori Bush or AOC will spare any of their donors’ money to fund their security and transportation? Don’t bet on it. I saw Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy (supposedly a conservative) try to claim that this is just to study the “viability” of a per-mile tax. It’s not really a vehicle mileage tax.
Sure.
We’re now more than 500 days into 15 days to slow the spread, so forgive me if I’m less than trusting of claims like this.
That’s why, fellow residents of Flyover Country, we should stop fighting about labels like Democrat or Republican, and even labels like liberal or conservative. Right now, the real fight is the MERC versus the rest of us. You may think, as a liberal or Democrat right now, that you guys are in control, and you’ve done all the right things. You’ve masked, you’ve vaxxed, and you’ve proudly and prominently placed the BLM sign on your lawn.
There’s a joke about two guys being chased by a bear, and the one guy saying, “I don’t have to outrun the bear…I just need to outrun you.”
I hate to break it to you my liberal, Democratic residents of Flyover Country, but the bear will eat both of us. It may eat you last, but you’re a fool to think that the MERC aren’t coming for your liberty as well.
You complied with the mandates, and where are you now? Having to wear masks again and seeing restrictions resume. What will it take to get you to ask the question: “where and when does this end?”
It’s the same playbook we’ve seen throughout the pandemic. In April, more than 30 commercial and public transportation groups expressed their support of a VMT. It won’t affect them because in the world of economics, they simply pass that increased cost onto the consumer. Just like a $15 minimum wage, or the essential vs. non-essential business debate favored large multi-nationals over small business, this won’t even be a blip on their radar or balance sheets.
So, of course they’re behind it, just like Amazon and Wal-Mart favored lockdowns “in the name of public health”, these groups claim to support this because “Motor fuel tax receipts are not keeping pace as vehicles become more fuel-efficient and use of new electric vehicles surges”.
Rrrrriiiigggghhhttt.
This is just the latest example of governmental overreach and likely foreshadows a dramatic expansion of the IRS and/or the DOT in order to “collect” these fees and taxes from all of us. It’s a further example of the convergence of the interests of big government and big business to shift us from “citizens” to “subjects.” This is why I lump Republican and Democrat politicians, corporate media, Big Tech, big business, etc. into one giant group. They are the MERC. They may pretend to be on opposite sides, but it’s all for show.
Small business owners and private enterprise (gas stations) currently collect the tax now at point of sale at the pump now, and quite efficiently. The MERC require more, though. They aren’t satisfied with people possibly maintaining their independence because they might do things in their own best interests that run counter to the best interests of the MERC.
How else to explain 19 Republican Senators approving this bill, many of them representing Flyover Country? It’s not “bipartisanship”, and it’s certainly not about their constituents. It’s because it serves MERC interests.
VMT redesigns an efficient system that will likely squeeze out more small business owners, replacing them with a combination of large multinationals and a larger administrative state and federal bureaucracy, dramatically expanding their size and reach, while simultaneously limiting the options of everyday residents in Flyover Country.
All of us in Flyover Country have to get our heads out of the sand. We can no longer neglect what’s happening. Being naïve or in denial is no longer an option. The pandemic opened the MERC’s eyes to a whole world of possible ways to strip you of your liberties. But it also exposed them.
Time to wake up and fight back.