Letters to the Editor: Opening the Mexican Border
These letters appear in the May 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
This is in response to “Groups Sue FMCSA Over Mexican-Trucks Plan” that appeared on your Web site April 25. (Click here for previous article.)
Every effort by every group should be made to stop this pilot program. While I concur with the safety issues, what is being missed by almost everyone is the severe financial effect and long-term costs this will have on each citizen of the United States.
We suffer enough already with having lost billions of dollars over the years in taxable revenue to run cities, states and the nation because company after company has fired millions of U.S. citizens to relocate outside the United States, claiming they would reduce the cost of goods to consumers.
That never happened and prices continued to go up as manufacturers and service industries knew they would gain, collectively, billions of tax-free dollars that would have been taxable events in the United States.
Jurisdictions have been hiding these tax increases by increasing tolls, fuel taxes, apportioned tag registration fees, etc. This has been done to avoid costly voter-booth reactions by consumers when their taxes went up.
Instead, to make up for billions of dollars in lost revenue, jurisdictions have been spanking the transportation industry with higher and higher costs, forcing many to deal with hard times as the burden for covering parts of these lost revenues are pushed onto trucks.
If we allow Mexican trucks to generate revenues for Mexico-based companies, eventually we stand to have several hundred thousand more taxpaying U.S. citizens displaced from their careers and placed in lower-wage jobs — thus reducing taxable revenues even more. This burden will continue to be pushed onto consumers in other forms of hidden taxes.
When I first entered the workplace, I could expect 30% of my income to go to paying taxes. Now, with hidden costs, I find that my income has not improved much — it has actually gone down as my overall costs have increased.
By the time I retire, Medicaid will be insolvent and Social Security will be almost gone. Who’s going to pay the bills? What’s going to happen if hundreds of thousands of trucks domiciled in Mexico cross the border in future years and siphon off through nontaxable dollars billions of dollars that will not stay within the system?
William Truesdell
President
Veratis Superabit LLC
Crofton, Md.
After reading the articles on NAFTA the past few weeks, it seems to me that our leaders have done half the job poorly and shot themselves in the foot on the other half. They seem so worried about truck inspections.
It’s not hard to inspect a truck or trailer. If a unit passes, issue a sticker and enter the number into a computer system. The next time a unit enters the border, see if a sticker number is on the vehicle it was issued to. If the answer is “yes,” pass the vehicle.
If not, impound it. Simple.
The bigger issues are drivers and insurance. Drivers need to speak English and should have to take a class on American road signs and what they mean, as well as how to drive on our roads with us. If they pass the class, they should then have to pass an American driving test, and then be issued a photo identification.
Insurance carried by Mexican trucks that want to traverse the United States must be written by an insurance carrier that does business in both countries.
Mexican law enforcement also must be willing to hunt down and extradite any persons responsible for injury or death with a motor vehicle while driving in the United States.
Rick Schumann
Owner-Operator
Washington, N.J.
