By-the-mile US car tax proposed by CBO

And there it is, ladies and gentlemen. The tax we've all been waiting for, the pay-by-the-mile tax.

An economist at the Congressional Budget Office suggested on Monday that the federal government could start charging people based on how far they drive in order to generate more government revenues to spend on highway projects.

Chad Shirley, CBO's deputy assistant director for microeconomic studies, gave a presentation that says federal gas tax revenues are falling short of federal spending on highway programs. But to resolve that problem, Shirley didn't propose less federal spending, and instead offered three suggestions.

The first is simply, "charging drivers" more the more they drive on roads.

Shirley said that one way to charge drivers more is to implement "vehicle-miles traveled charges.

CBO's presentation also said the government could get more money from drivers by charging them more when traffic is bad. Shirley calls that "congestion pricing.

A third option, Shirley said, would be "allowing tolling on additional existing interstates."

Side benefit of pay-by-the-mile, a 24/7/365 Panopticon view of the location of every single vehicle in the USA. Just imagine the datamining you could do on a thing like that.

They are going to do this.