Democrats Try To Ram Through Big Brother Transport Bill

Legislation allows IRS to revoke passports, mandates black boxes in vehicles
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Thursday, April 26, 2012

Democrats are trying to ram through a notorious transportation bill stuffed with Big Brother measures, including empowering the IRS to revoke passports of accused tax delinquents and enforcing mandatory black boxes in all new cars from 2015 onwards, by forcing the Republican-controlled House to pass the Senate version of the legislation.

Late yesterday afternoon, “the House turned away an attempt by Democrats to speed up the conference by instructing House negotiators to accept the Senate-passed bill. That bill, S. 1813, would fund federal highway programs for two years, a plan Democrats prefer over the House-passed bill that only extends funding through September,” reports the Hill.

The Senate bill, also known as the ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’ (MAP-21), is very different from the House version in that it not only outlines funding for federal highway programs but also includes innumerable nightmarish provisions that butcher privacy rights. The bill will now go to conference and lawmakers will attempt to come to an agreement on the final version of the legislation.

A list of the conferees who will work with the bill’s chief sponsor Barbara Boxer to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill includes Jay Rockefeller, who advocated warrantless spying on American citizens back in 2008.

Should lawmakers from both sides of the aisle be unable to come to a compromise, “Congress could pass the Senate-approved bill, S. 1813, and then pass a technical corrections bill to address these differences,” according to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking member Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.).

“What they want to do is cast the participation of the House of Representatives aside, and just adopt what the Senate has brought forward,” warned Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.).

The bill has attracted widespread criticism for a number of fourth amendment-busting provisions that empower the federal government to spy on American citizens.

Prime amongst them is Section 31406, which calls for “Mandatory Event Data Recorders” to be installed in all new automobiles and legislates for civil penalties to be imposed against individuals for failing to do so.

Another provision contained in Section 53006 of the Senate bill would mandate “Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications systems deployment,” creating the framework for all vehicles to be connected wirelessly to other vehicles and infrastructure (such as the new street lights which are being installed with “Homeland Security applications” and can listen in on conversations), greasing the skids for constant real-time tracking, eavesdropping and surveillance.

The authorities will no longer have to plant bugs or GPS trackers in cars for clandestine surveillance because the vehicle owner will be mandated to do it for them under this bill.

Both of these tech technologies could also be used in a future ‘tax by the mile’ system – or in other words a carbon tax – which has been aggressively promoted by the Obama administration.

The legislation would also empower the Internal Revenue Service to bar Americans from leaving the country if they are merely accused of owing $50,000 or more in back taxes, an unconstitutional measure described as “Stalinist” in that it greases the skids for a system of ‘internal passports’ that would restrict citizens from leaving their area of residence without government permission.

Yet another dangerous provision has also come to light thanks to air tour industry companies like Helicopter Association International, who in a press release noted that the Alexander amendment to the Senate version of the bill hands the National Park Service the power to regulate airspace above America’s national parks, “threatening the very existence of a vital tourism-based industry.”

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.