Truckers ‘going broke’ and threatening to strike
When this headline first showed up on my screen, I laughed. I couldn't help it... any trucker who is "going broke" owns his own rig, so who in the world would he be striking against?
Then I read the article. As expected, these truckers are complaining about the high price of diesel fuel. Surprisingly, though—to me, anyway—they are laying the blame precisely where it belongs: on Federal and State governments who are gouging them (and us) with taxes on every gallon of fuel that amount to at least five times the profit taken by the fuel producers who make the stuff.
What these gentlemen want is for Federal and state governments to suspend fuel taxes until the economy recovers. Now, considering that they also want a new oversight committee to harrass the companies that insure their trucks, I think it's safe to say that this is a movement from the Left... but it is also undeniably true that eliminating taxes on diesel fuel would represent a huge economic stimulus.
And once those taxes go away, they may be politically impossible to reinstate at their former levels.
To achieve their end, our truckers are threatening to park their trucks and leave them parked until they get their way. Can they pull it off? Maybe so... long-haul trucking is the logistical life-blood of our economy, and no legislator is going to miss the message.
It's a long shot, but I'm excited to see how this plays out.
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