Having had such amazing success controlling the virus, why wouldn’t the three police states of Maskachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut now propose to save the planet by doubling or tripling the tax on gasoline and diesel fuel?
What could possibly go wrong?
In case you missed it, on Monday of Christmas week, the three aforementioned failed states announced a bold, probably unconstitutional agreement to screw motorists and what’s left of the private sector.
They mean to further lay waste to the region’s economy by jacking up gasoline taxes, with no legislative or voter approval. The payoff: billions for an endless supply of phony-baloney no-show jobs for their pals and relatives.
Basically, the payroll patriots’ plan is to talk global warming to death, at seminars and conferences in assorted sunny places for shady people.
It would seem a daunting challenge, to affect the climate of the planet, especially when only these three small states have signed on, while the hacks were hoping for a dozen to jump-start their latest mad scheme to beggar the middle class.
Independent studies have indicated that Maskachusetts’ greed could tack somewhere between 14 and 38 cents more tax on every gallon of gasoline sold (or not sold, if you’re within easy driving distance of New Hampshire).
The hacks, though, now say the additional gas tax will “only” amount to 9 cents per gallon.
Of course these low-ball numbers are concocted by the same government that falsified 65,000 criminal drug tests, has allowed the State Police to become an organized-crime family, once promised that the Mass Pike tolls would end in 1989 and said that the “temporary” 1989 income tax hike would be gone in 18 months. (It lasted 30 years.)
This time, though, the hacks are telling the truth. Just ask them.
But let’s consider how these groundbreaking states have this year handled a much smaller, more manageable project – namely, controlling a seasonal virus from China.
Start with nursing homes. According to the latest statistics, here’s how the three TCI states stack up:
Massachusetts is No. 1 among the 50 states in nursing-home deaths per 1000, at 125. That means one of every eight residents of the nursing homes regulated by Gov. Baker’s Dept. of Public Health is dead this year.
Despite his abysmal failure to protect the elderly, Tall Deval is supremely confident in his plot to lift another few billion out of the taxpayers’ pockets, er, I mean, save the planet.
Of our Commonwealth’s partners in saving Mother Gaia, Connecticut stands third in nursing home deaths, one of every 10 residents dead. Rhode Island comes in at number four in the toll at nursing homes, 86 per thousand, which is one of 12.
Okay, so how are the three gas-tax-crazed states doing in overall deaths?
Again, Maskachusetts is close to the top of the heap, third-highest death toll per 100,000 in the U.S. (166). Connecticut is fifth (153) and Rhode Island seventh (148).
The TCI plan is to not call the taxes taxes, but to impose “levies” on fuel suppliers.
They will then pass on their added costs to that ever-dwindling number of people who haven’t fled what was once known as southern New England, but could now more accurately be called the Warsaw Pact West, or perhaps Greater Albania.
By the way, I forgot to mention, a fourth shady entity has signed on to this latest heist – the District of Columbia.
DC is run by Mayor Muriel Bowser, who follows her own lockdown rules about as diligently as, say, Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island or Lt. Gov. Karyn “Pay-to-Play” Polito.
Rules for thee, but not for me – that’s their motto, all of ’em.
Anyway, in her statement about the TCI, Mayor Bowser said, “My vision is for the District to be the healthiest, greenest, most livable city …”
Then perhaps Mayor Bowser should forget TCI for awhile and instead concentrate on DC’s murder rate — eighth-highest in the country.
As you might have expected, the planet was a little warmer after all the hot air expended Monday by all of the principals in this latest soak-the-poor grift.
Pay-to-Play Polito said the shakedown will “create jobs for Massachusetts residents, and help our state and regional economies recover.”
Surely she meant to say “hack jobs.” And imagine her audacity to claim an obscene tax hike will help the economy recover — after Polito’s own administration drove it over a cliff, for no good reason.
This is like the proverbial story about the guy who kills his parents, then throws himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan.
One last thing: Check out these photos of candidate Charlie Parker from 2014. He was running for governor, and he hooked onto a referendum question that was designed to repeal an earlier odious proposed automatic annual gas tax increase.
Charlie was losing the election until he married Question 1. Despite being outspent 30-1 by Big Asphalt, the taxpayers prevailed by 125,000 votes. Charlie Parker, meanwhile, eked out a 40,000-vote victory over the worst candidate in state history, Martha “Marsha” Coakley.
Bottom line: Charlie Parker was first elected on the coattails of a taxpayers’ revolt against the insatiable greed of the hackerama. He owes his political career to opponents of a confiscatory gas tax.
Yet now he proposes to triple the gasoline tax on the very people who (once) elected him.
Can’t wait for 2022.
We’ll remember, not in November, but in September, at primary time. Charlie rode in on a referendum, there’s no reason he can’t ride out on one the same damn way.