If there is to be a highway named after Mr. Obama, it should be a toll road.

Recently I learned that my state Senator, the Honorable Royce West, has proposed the renaming of a section of Interstate 20 after President Obama.¹  Apparently there is a state law prohibiting such a change, unless the person so honored is deceased, a former U.S. president, or someone who was significant in the state's history.² Senator West wants to change that law, but if he is successful, Texas will likely become another West Virginia, with dozens of highways and buildings monotonously named after one person.

I have met Mr. West a couple of times. He seems like a really nice guy, but he is a Democrat after all, and Democrats tend to come up with ideas that are wildly out of step with the American mainstream.³ I would be opposed to this bill no matter which highway was affected, but the section of I-20 that he wants to rename is close to my house, so if the bill becomes law I would have to see the Obama Highway signs almost every day from now on.

Laura Elizabeth Morales has humorously suggested that if there is to be a highway named after Mr. Obama, it should be a toll road.⁴ (I would suggest perhaps a toll road that runs headlong into an inescapable abyss, a black hole, or an enormous pit of quicksand.) Ms. Morales further suggested that the toll should "increase with a driver's income."

That's an amusing quip, but upon further consideration, such a system is not impossible.  As much as I would hate to be named as the inventor of a new mechanism for raising taxes, here's how it could be implemented:

License plate readers could look up the make, model, age and weight of every car that enters the toll road, using the state's existing database. (I don't know — they might already be doing exactly that, for the purpose of tracking stolen cars, Islamic terrorists or "deadbeat dads.") In addition to the toll, a small surcharge could be applied for new cars, luxury cars, SUVs, gas guzzlers, or any other car that the government wants to discourage. Conversely, there could also be a discount for hybrids, mopeds, and little 50-mpg cracker boxes.

Oh, of course the new car surcharge would only be a matter of a few cents extra — at first. Ideas like this have to be implemented quietly and then expanded in very gradual increments. The politicians would have a grand time applying the candy coating: Who could possibly object if the driver of a new Cadillac pays an extra dime to drive on a toll road?

But after a few years of driver acclimation and a few "adjustments," anything fancier than a Ford Fiesta could be considered luxurious, and we would all share the burden to some extent.

The technology exists.  It's only a matter of time before the tax-crazed bureaucrats discover this new method of soaking the middle class by using cameras and databases that are already in place.

References

1. http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2009/04/texas-lawmakers-propose-renaming-interstate-after-obama.html

2. http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=119078&article=5269597

3. http://www.akdart.com/lib9.html

4. http://www.yct.org/node/111