Interstate Highways: tolls + privatization

2006-07-01

Richard Moore

Friends,

The following excerpt is from an official government website, taken from a 
letter to Congress from the Secretary of the Department of Transportation.  It 
is several pages long, mostly talking about 'improving safety'. Buried down in 
the fine print is a single paragraph about user charges.

  ___________________________________
  Original source URL:
  http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reauthorization/transletterhastert.htm
  
      ³Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation
      Equity Act of 2003" (SAFETEA). Reauthorization will supply
      the funds and the framework for investments needed to
      maintain and grow our vital transportation infrastructure.
      In addition, our proposed legislation seeks to place a
      central focus on transportation safety. Although we have
      made improvements in the rates of fatalities and injuries on
      our highways, the total numbers remain intolerable, and they
      are rising. Every year, nearly 43,000 people lose their
      lives on our highways and roads. Families are destroyed and
      promise is lost.
  
      ...Allow States to establish user charges on Federal-aid
      highways, including the Interstate System, if certain
      conditions are satisfied.
  ___________________________________

I looked that up just to make sure 'infowars' was for real. Their article is 
below.

rkm

___________________________________
Original source URL:
http://infowars.com/articles/ps/toll_roads_its_the_law_feds_pave_way.htm

IT¹S THE LAW! FEDS PAVE THE WAY TO TOLL AND PRIVATIZE THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS AS
PART OF AMERICAN UNION

Infowars.com | June 29, 2006
By Bob Dacy

On July 29, 2005, President Bush signed a bill which permits and promotes the 
charging of tolls on existing and planned interstate highways, bridges, and 
tunnels. Before the passage of the bill, known as SAFETEA-LU, or ³Safe, 
Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users²,
it was generally illegal to charge tolls on roads built with Federal funds. 
What¹s more, the tolls collected will be automatic, requiring universally 
compatible toll transponder tags on every vehicle.

SAFETEA-LU makes possible a variety of programs, all aimed at forcing Americans 
to pay to travel. To wit:

* ³Interstate System Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Pilot Program² allows the 
tolling of existing interstate highways, bridges, and tunnels to fund repair of 
existing highways.

* ³Interstate System Construction Toll Pilot Program² authorizes tolling 
existing facilities on the interstate system to fund new interstate highways.

* ³Value Pricing Pilot (VPP) Program² allows new tolls on existing toll free 
facilities such as high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, tolls on new lanes added 
to existing highways, and electronically collected variable tolls on existing 
and new toll facilities.

* ³Express Lanes Demonstration Program² allows tolling to finance new lanes. 
Automatic toll collection is REQUIRED and revenue collected may be used to 
provide a reasonable rate of return on PRIVATE financing, operation, and 
maintenance costs.

* ³High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Facilities, SAFETEA-LU Section 1121 (23 USC 
166)² authorizes states to build high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on interstate 
and non-interstate facilities.

Although most of these programs are experimental, the mindset they demonstrate 
and the precedents they intend to set will have devastating consequences on all 
Americans. The mindset is that Americans are lab rats in a maze, who must be 
tagged and tracked everywhere they go. Cockroaches control the maze. The 
consequences to the heretofore taken for granted freedom to travel and to 
individual pocketbooks are ominous.

Imagine for a moment what must have been going through the minds of the 
six-legged elites when they thought up this diabolical scheme. The question is 
³How do you destroy the national sovereignty of the United States, merge it with
the rest of the western hemisphere, build the infrastructure system needed to 
link up the entire landmass, confiscate private property on a wholesale level, 
spy on everyone¹s comings and goings, and trick American suckers into paying for
their own demise all in one fell swoop ? The answer: TOLL EVERYTHING!

As with any diabolical plot, many problems and obstacles had to be removed in 
order to insure success. As the Wicked Witch of the West once said, ³The 
question is `how to do it`. These things must be done delicately, or you¹ll hurt
the spell².

The first obstacle is that it is generally illegal to toll federally funded 
roads. No problemŠjust sneak section 1604 into a telephone book sized highway 
bill and no one will notice. Everyone knows Congressmen and Senators do not 
actually read the bills they vote on.

How do you get the super rich elites to go along with the plan? SimpleŠgive them
a piece of the action. Construction contracts will go to selected insiders and 
toll facilities will be given to private investors. We will call it 
³public-private partnership².

But wait! State by state, the local politicians must be persuaded to pass 
legislation to further the scheme. How to do it? Tell the contractors to write 
the necessary legislation, line the campaign coffers of key legislators, 
convince the Governor of each state that it was his idea via more campaign 
contributions, and sneak the bills through the state legislatures when nobody is
looking. After all, state representatives do not read the bills they vote on 
either.

Yet another requirement in order to pull this off is to keep the unwashed masses
in the dark It would not do to have the sheep to find out they are about to be 
shorn. So how do you keep the press quiet? No problemŠwe control the press! The 
watchdog will remain asleep, and no one will find out until it is a done deal. 
Besides, when the cretins begin to realize what is going on, they will complain 
to their local transportation officials and wonder why no one is listening. Just
don¹t let the slaves know that the ³massa² barking the orders resides in New 
York City at the headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

But the Constitution stands in the way of the plot. What to do about the pesky 
supreme law of the land which prohibits the taking of private land and handing 
it over to other private entities? How fortunate that the globalist infested 
Supreme Court, in June of 2005, legislated from the bench by re-writing the 
takings clause of the 5th Amendment in Kelo vs. City of New London. Now the 
Supremes say it is okay to force people to sell their land to private developers
who promise a kickback to the government, we are free to proceed with the 
tolling of America.

Still one more problem must be overcome. We must propagandize transportation 
officials into believing this is a great idea so they can sell it to private 
investors and politicos nationwide. ADVERTISING is the key. We will get the 
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to put up a 
website called www.innovativefinance.org. It will be a veritable ³how to² 
encyclopedia of fascism, but we will call it ³public-private partnership² 
because ³fascism² does not roll so well off of the tongue. Multi-millionaire 
highway contractors and local politicians will be able to swill at the federal 
trough to their hearts content. It will be a win-win setup for everyone except 
regular Americans, who are just being set up.

This malicious plan is being implemented all across America. Such plots survive 
and thrive only in the dark. It is time to turn on the lights and watch the 
cockroaches run. In Texas, pro-toll politicians have been replaced with 
anti-toll newcomers. This trend must continue, and spread like a wildfire of 
truth throughout the country. The alarm clock is ringing. Wake up. Get up. Open 
your eyes. Get out the roach spray. Fumigate your house. Go wake up your 
neighbors.
-- 

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