How about CO2 taxes on fossil fuels then?
Or even just fuel taxes that are sufficient to maintain vehicle infrastructure.
My fuel is already taxed - I pay about $0.59 tax per gallon in Virginia.
House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
61–70 of 161 posts
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#62I have a lot to say on this... > Critics say electric vehicle buyers tend to be wealthier than average Americans and do nod need subsidies. I love how this gets buried at the bottom after an avalanche of criticism. A free $7500 for the rich and an additional $7500 in revenue for manufacturers. Say what you want about the American political system, it is a master class in manipulation. "But the environment!" Assuming…
Of course things get framed to manipulate opinion. Now, I actually don't mean this with any snark, but how is what you're doing any different? This tax credit applies to plenty of vehicles sold for much less than $100,000.
The majority of the EV market is high-end, luxury vehicles.
There is a 200k cap on the credit. Meaning mass market EVs do not receive the credit. It exclusively benefits low volume, high margin EVs. Which are exclusively marketed to the rich.
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#63I mean it's kind of the point of tax reform. You eliminate deductions that only wealthier people benefit from and lower the rate over all. You'll see a lot of deductions go away that are good on their own but in aggregate with all the other deductions give us such a massively complex system.
> You eliminate deductions that only wealthier people benefit The Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt aren't particularly upper class cars. Neither is the Model 3.
It's not so much the value of the car that determines whether the credit benefits the wealthy or not. This is a tax credit, not just a check from the government. You have to have a fairly high income in order to have a federal tax liability of $7500. A single person would need to make almost $50k a year in order to benefit from the full credit.
That's not a big number by developer standards but it's more than the median household income in the US.
(Having said that I'm for the credit and have already benefited from it twice.)
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
* Mortgage Interest is dropping from 1-million to 500k. * State / Local tax disproportionately benefits richer states (which tend to have higher income taxes). That's also going away. The real issue IMO is that the standard deduction is going up, and the top tax rate is going down. The overall effect seems to be a tax-increase for me and a tax-decrease to those who are richer than me. They probably should close the b…
How does the standard deduction going up benefit the rich or harm the non-rich? Aren't lower- and middle-class people most likely to take the standard deduction, and thus be able to deduct more?
They're cutting a lot of deductions.
EDIT: Seems like my information is out of date. I'll just edit my misinformation out (ie: most of the previous post)
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
* Mortgage Interest is dropping from 1-million to 500k. * State / Local tax disproportionately benefits richer states (which tend to have higher income taxes). That's also going away. The real issue IMO is that the standard deduction is going up, and the top tax rate is going down. The overall effect seems to be a tax-increase for me and a tax-decrease to those who are richer than me. They probably should close the b…
Probably not the time yet to write about the proposal as if it is sure to happen/stay the same.
Fair point. These things change dramatically with debate.
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#66I bought a Prius Prime earlier this year anticipating that such a move was possible. This would be a real shame, though, because it does help level the playing field a bit given how much our country invests in oil.
I choose the Volt over the Prime and I'm curious if you don't mind, what pulled you towards the Prime?
The Volt was the other serious contender for me (especially given that I live in a state that doesn't generally get the electric vehicles).
Ultimately, it was trunk space that made me choose the Prime. We have one car and occasionally go camping and having more storage in the car was more important than the fifth seat or longer electric range.
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#67I have a lot to say on this... > Critics say electric vehicle buyers tend to be wealthier than average Americans and do nod need subsidies. I love how this gets buried at the bottom after an avalanche of criticism. A free $7500 for the rich and an additional $7500 in revenue for manufacturers. Say what you want about the American political system, it is a master class in manipulation. "But the environment!" Assuming…
>that is also assuming electric cars (in their current state) are less impactful than fossil fuel vehicles (which isn't the case)
Unless your electricity is generated by burning peat, in terms of CO2 emissions, this is false.
Of course, the correct solution to the emissions problem is to reduce the number of miles Americans drive. But you'll never hear a House Republican say that.
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#68How about CO2 taxes on fossil fuels then?
Taxes are even less palatable than subsidies. A carbon tax is a great idea, but before you can implement it, you have to fight the people who hate taxes, the people who hate environmentalism, and the companies whose products you're now directly attacking. Subsidies for the alternative are a compromise solution meant to work around the unfeasibility of passing a carbon tax.
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not clear that oil revenues actually improve stability in the Mideast. A considerable proportion of the revenue is quite literally diverted into forces intended to cause states to fail or stagnate.
>A considerable proportion of the revenue is quite literally diverted into forces intended to cause states to fail or stagnate. Yeah you're gonna need a credible source on that claim.
It's my understanding that, at their height, IS derived much of their revenue from captured oil assets. Note that I'm specifically not making the claim that all middle eastern oil revenue is tied to some terror group, but I'm pretty sure some of it is.
Please do correct me if I am wrong.
Re: House Republicans propose to scrap $7,500 electric vehicle credit
#70Why do articles like this always paint reductions in a negative manner? This is actually a positive. The credit should be scraped immediately. The credit was an initial incentive to help encourage drivers to adopt electric vehicles, and it worked very well. Electric vehicles are everywhere especially in major cities; they are huge in my city San Diego. However, now that they are mainstream there is no reason to continue with tax breaks. Electric drivers will continue to drive them, and their share of the market will continue to expand with or without the tax breaks as more people convert. Lets us that tax money to pay for other important things like paying off our debt or funding sustainable energy solutions.