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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (38924)	9/21/2000 3:32:32 PM
From: microhoogle!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Neocon, Adam Smith might have considered Railways to be a legitimate expense too. For example, Indian Railways carries about 12 million passengers/day and a decade ago, I could travel within $10 in second class from extreme north to extreme south (3400 KM). Now it may be $25 at best. If it is First Class or Air Conditioned, then it is a different story. After all this IR was profitable with bloated 1.6 million employees. However, our highways suck.

To: Neocon who wrote (38924)	9/21/2000 3:33:52 PM
From: Doughboy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Gas taxes make up just a small fraction of what is spent on federal highways. The fact is that trucking companies and bus companies get a free ride from the American people. What bugs me is that taxpayers bitch about having to subsidize mass transit when they don't realize that their biggest subsidy is going to the folks who drive on the taxpayer-paid highways at a huge discount. I recall that in the '92 elections, Ross Perot (a Texan himself) suggested that the most market-efficient means for taxing gas is by British Thermal Units (a la the European model). It reflects the most environmentally sound, and most efficient means for doing so. But it would force Americans to face up to the fact that fossil fuels are a more expenive means to transport yourself to and from work and it was therefore political poison. I just don't understand it when the body politic can raise itself in indignant outrage over gas and mass transport taxes when they're being robbed blind by Big Oil, OPEC, and truckers. Doughboy.