- Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Santa Claus both punish the naughty and reward the nice. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal inadvertently illustrated the point I made in my last post when he explained why he wasn't going to implement Obamacare.
“It really raises the question of what’s next, what’s allowable,” Jindal said on a Republican National Committee Conference Call. “Taxes on people who refuse to eat tofu or refuse to drive a Chevy Volt…this whole ruling I think is ridiculous. It’s a huge expansion of federal power.”
Well, bad news, governor. People who don't own a Volt already pay higher taxes. Purchasers of hybrid and electric vehicles in 2012 got a $7,500 tax credit. Put differently, I paid $7,500 more in taxes because I didn't buy a Volt or some other qualifying car.
I'm not a big fan of this credit, even though I would love for people to use less fossil fuels, because I don't think the government is smart enough to pick the right technologies to subsidize. A carbon tax would make much more sense. But the government taxes us more for doing stuff not on the approved list all the time.
Ironically,Louisiana also offers a state tax credit for alternative fuel cars (including Volts), which Governor Jindal signed into law in 2009 .
I guess he wasn't such a freedom lover back then.
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