The beauty of federalism: Blue States free to raise taxes while Red States make cuts

    The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story about how Blue states are raising taxes and spending pretty dramatically while Red States are holding the line.
    My personal opinion is that these Blue States are making a mistake. There has been a slow seepage of high-income people and businesses from Blue States due to high taxes. Raising them even more is likely to drive off more.
    But, on the other side of the coin, many people are glad to pay more in taxes when accompanied by better government services. Unfortunately, many of the Blue States, such as California, have a history of squandering tax money.
    What's the right choice? I have an opinion but I don't know for sure. But the beauty of federalism is that different states can do different things and hopefully learn from each other's mistakes. If higher taxes and spending -- presumably accompanied by better infrastructure and education -- end up attracting new businesses we'll know that the Blue State strategy is best. If the Blue States continue to hemorrhage jobs and taxpayers we'll know they have made a mistake. If Red States continue to slowly attract business and taxpayers we'll know they've done it right.
    I think it worthy of note that many Blue State residents simply would never more to a Red State no matter how high their taxes were. Most people from Southern California or Massachusetts simply are not going to be happy living in Mississippi or Alabama. They might like Naples, Fla., though. People aren't going to pack up and move overnight. This is a decade-by-decade process.
    What we have is federalism at its finest. Different states adopting dramatically different policies. Not only does it give American citizens more choices, but as a state we can look around at what works and doesn't work elsewhere and act accordingly.

We don't want to government to put tracking devices in our cars!

    The former presidential candidate who once claimed he would never increase taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year now wants to put a new tax on all Americans based on how many miles they drive each year. In order to accomplish this the government will place a g.p.s. tracking device on every vehicle in America.
    I suppose Obama's excuse is like Bluto's line from Animal House: "You ----ed up. You trusted us!"
    Now make no mistake, if we lived in a society where every single citizen drove electric cars this might make a slight amount of sense. But we don't. The system we currently have of paying for our highways works just fine.
    That means that people who drive Hummers getting 12 miles per gallon pay a lot more in highway taxes than people who drive Priuses that get 60 mpg. That's as it should be. Small cars create a lot less wear and tear on our road system and should pay less. Those who invest huge sums on electric vehicles in an effort to end our addiction to foreign oil should get a free ride.
    Is the guy getting 12 mpg paying more than his fair share of highway funds? Almost certainly. And as our nation's car fleet gets more fuel-efficient, those who drive gas guzzlers will shoulder an increasing tax burden. That's as it should be. It's using our tax system to give people the maximum freedom of choice while nudging them in the right direction.
    We Americans don't want the government to put tracking devices on our cars. We don't trust our government because our government can't be trusted. Any proposal to put tracking devices on cars is just one more step towards totalitarianism. (No doubt Obama and his goons will soon want to track us to make sure we don't visit a doctor of our own choosing!)
    A common-sense energy policy should reward those who buy fuel-efficient cars. A mileage-based tax does just the opposite.
    For the foreseeable future we should finance our highways through gas taxes. If the day comes that American has an mostly electric car fleet we can fund highways through a tax on electricity, not by a mileage tax..
    What we don't need -- ever -- is tracking devices on our cars. Obama go home!