I bet that a lot of those Jefferson wannabes will take advantage of this.

Since the DINO & RINO pulled off what happened on Sept. 11, New York gets anything they want. What city will be next on their list??

If the city streets were privately owned, congestion pricing would be perfectly reasonable and expected. It is closer to a free market approach to managing traffic than any of the methods tried thus far.

And the money being offered by the Feds is not a half a billion as quoted but something over $300 million, not necessarily a good use of tax payers funds but a tiny fraction of the $2.2 billion in farm subsidies directed at the the great state of Iowa in the year 2005 alone. Iowa electricians may or may not be upset but as their state is wallowing in Federal largess, they have little to complain about. http://farm.ewg.org/farm/progdetail.php?fips=00000&yr=2005&progcode=total&page=district

To put it another way, the proposed subsidies to New York City to implement congestion pricing is about what the US is spending in one day in Iraq. http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aairaqwarcost.htm

Perhaps it is time to prioritize what we as libertarians are upset about.

Rich Evey, did u just accuse the government of attacking the WTC on 9/11? because if you did you are an idiot, fuck yourself.

OOPS! ..more talk of illions of 'dollars' from people who..well..you ought to know by now.. ;o)

ATTRIBUTED TO ANSELM ROTHSCHILD:
"Give me the power to issue a nation's money; then I do not care who makes the law."

Tolls, subsidies, egad. What happens when the government has enough revenue sources in place tha they demand more than 100% of what people earn?

We need a FINITE SPENDING EDICT that says for every new spending "they" approve, an equal cut must be made somewhere else. New ways to spend just can't go on forever.

This showed up in my email this morning. Anyone care to comment on its validity?

08/08/07 "ICH" --- - Early this morning China let the idiots in Washington, and on Wall Street, know that it has them by the short hairs. Two senior spokesmen for the Chinese government observed that China’s considerable holdings of US dollars and Treasury bonds “contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency.”

Should the US proceed with sanctions intended to cause the Chinese currency to appreciate, “the Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar.”

If Western financial markets are sufficiently intelligent to comprehend the message, US interest rates will rise regardless of any further action by China. At this point, China does not need to sell a single bond. In an instant, China has made it clear that US interest rates depend on China, not on the Federal Reserve.

The precarious position of the US dollar as reserve currency has been thoroughly ignored and denied. The delusion that the US is “the world’s sole superpower,” whose currency is desirable regardless of its excess supply, reflects American hubris, not reality. This hubris is so extreme that only 6 weeks ago McKinsey Global Institute published a study that concluded that even a doubling of the US current account deficit to $1.6 trillion would pose no problem.

Strategic thinkers, if any remain who have not been purged by neocons, will quickly conclude that China’s power over the value of the dollar and US interest rates also gives China power over US foreign policy. The US was able to attack Afghanistan and Iraq only because China provided the largest part of the financing for Bush’s wars.

If China ceased to buy US Treasuries, Bush’s wars would end. The savings rate of US consumers is essentially zero, and several million are afflicted with mortgages that they cannot afford. With Bush’s budget in deficit and with no room in the US consumer’s budget for a tax increase, Bush’s wars can only be financed by foreigners.

No country on earth, except for Israel, supports the Bush regimes’ desire to attack Iran. It is China’s decision whether it calls in the US ambassador, and delivers the message that there will be no attack on Iran or further war unless the US is prepared to buy back $900 billion in US Treasury bonds and other dollar assets.

The US, of course, has no foreign reserves with which to make the purchase. The impact of such a large sale on US interest rates would wreck the US economy and effectively end Bush’s war-making capability. Moreover, other governments would likely follow the Chinese lead, as the main support for the US dollar has been China’s willingness to accumulate them. If the largest holder dumped the dollar, other countries would dump dollars, too.

The value and purchasing power of the US dollar would fall. When hard-pressed Americans went to Wal-Mart to make their purchases, the new prices would make them think they had wandered into Nieman Marcus. Americans would not be able to maintain their current living standard.

Simultaneously, Americans would be hit either with tax increases in order to close a budget deficit that foreigners will no longer finance or with large cuts in income security programs. The only other source of budgetary finance would be for the government to print money to pay its bills. In this event, Americans would experience inflation in addition to higher prices from dollar devaluation.

This is a grim outlook. We got in this position because our leaders are ignorant fools. So are our economists, many of whom are paid shills for some interest group. So are our corporate leaders whose greed gave China power over the US by offshoring the US production of goods and services to China. It was the corporate fat cats who turned US Gross Domestic Product into Chinese imports, and it was the “free trade, free market economists” who egged it on.

How did a people as stupid as Americans get so full of hubris?

So Coach Jim, other than having nothing whatsoever to do with the topic at hand, the rather hysterical ranting about China is nothing new and in the range of things that worry me a lot, doesn't rank very high. China needs us as much as we need them. And free or at least freer markets make us stronger, not weaker, regardless of what the ranting of xenophobe conservatives might claim to the contrary. If China does stop our insane president from starting another needless and criminal war, so much the better. I doubt that they have the leverage.

If anyone is interested in staying on topic, the NY Times had an interesting article about how the Feds are spending money to discourage private car use in high congestion areas while at the same time also subsidizing parking with tax breaks, thus encouraging private car use in high congestion areas. Essentially spending taxpayers dollars to simultaneously encourage and discourage driving. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/nyregion/16driving.html

No one in Iowa will care. What with the huge ethanol subsidy their farmers get. Besides, how strong is the Iowa LP? Will they be educating Iowa voters on this boondoggle?

Sorry Coach Jim, but that article is full of implausibilities and fear-mongering.

If China attempted that, they risk crashing their own economy. Given the fact that the government their has a "booming" economy as the source of their power (and trust me, I know- I live there), risking instability or a crash is the last thing China would attempt.