Howie Carr: Chilly wind blowing for Baker with TCI

History may be repeating itself, with an ironic twist.

In 2014, Charlie Baker barely won the governorship, by 40,000 votes, riding in on the coattails of a statewide referendum that repealed a despised gasoline tax increase.

Now, if he runs for a third term next year, Charlie will again be leading a crusade on an even more unpopular gasoline tax increase.

But there’s one big difference between 2014 and 2022.

Next year, Charlie would be cheerleading not against, but for jacking up the gasoline tax per gallon from 24 cents to, according to one Tufts University study, perhaps as high as 62 cents a gallon.

As a driver, what would you prefer to pay in state taxes — 24 cents a gallon, or Charlie Baker’s dream, 62 cents per gallon?

If Baker runs, you will have a choice, at least in the GOP primary. The incumbent 62-cents-a-gallon-tax governor, or ex-Rep. Geoff Diehl, who doesn’t even like 24 cents a gallon.

Which side are you on? Which side will your wallet be on?

Earlier this week Attorney General Maura Healey certified 16 referendum questions for next year’s statewide ballot, including one on what Parker and his climate-change dead-enders call the Transportation and Climate Initiative.

In reality, it’s the Tax ‘Em Back to the Stone Age to Pay for the Hackerama ballot question.

Originally, all the states in the Northeast, as far south as Virginia, were supposed to be in on this mad multibillion-dollar heist. The theory was that if all the states screwed their drivers at the same moment, they’d have nowhere nearby to drive to for relief.

Now, every other state — including some with tax-crazed Democrat governors — has bailed out. The only ones left in the conspiracy are Charlie Parker and the demented mayor of the District of Columbia, which isn’t even a state.

Apparently Charlie doesn’t think the cost of gasoline is high enough, even after his man Dementia Joe’s insane policies have driven up prices 40% since January.

Personally, I’m still not even sure Parker wants a third term. Third terms are always catastrophic, and hasn’t his second term been enough of a total calamity across the board?

Third highest COVID death rate in the country (until this month), the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the State Police, his son’s JetBlue flight, the Department of Public Health’s 65,000 falsified criminal drug tests and the ongoing cover-up …

Charlie, haven’t you done enough?

His fundraising this year has been anemic — just $46,774 last month, after $57,907 in July. He’s basically just raising enough to pay his campaign’s fixed expenses, including payroll.

One reason for sticking around, though: the torrent of money from D.C. Even Sen. Ed Markey awakened from his decades-long nap to journey to the Cape Cod Canal last week and talk about money for Massachusetts institutions that “are over 80 years old, structurally deficient and in desperate need of replacement.”

For the record, Mr. Frosty was talking not about himself, but about the Bourne and Sagamore bridges.

There’s an old saying: If you believe in nothing, you’ll fall for anything. That sums up Charlie Parker.

He fell for the COVID grift hook, line and sinker, and he sunk the state in the process. Anything any “expert” in a white lab coat told him — he believed it, 100 percent.

Now he’s all in on the climate-change scam. Which is where the TCI gas tax comes in.

Ostensibly it’s about reducing carbon emissions, and the hacks claim it’ll “only” be 5-9 cents a gallon. Yeah right.

The TCI conspiracy is really about Charlie needing billions more to pay for hundreds or maybe even thousands more phony-baloney jobs. They’re needed for all these unemployable Ph.D.’s who want to get paid six-figure salaries for wringing their hands about rising sea levels, while not actually doing anything about them or anything else.

The hacks all gotta go somewhere, right? Anywhere except to a real job where you’re expected to … work.

I mean, as much as Charlie may want to, he can’t add 600 more hacks to the Cannabis Control Commission. Or even the Mass. Gaming Commission — right Rep. Brad Hill?

Just as during the COVID panic, Charlie actually believes the snake oil these climate grifters are peddling. He was out in Easthampton earlier this week, talking about “environmental justice populations” in “environmental justice communities.”

This is the way he actually talks now. His mind is gone, obviously.

Parker continued with this bureaucratic gibberish: “resiliency opportunities for folks across the Commonwealth.”

He and his green wokesters, he babbled, are offering “sound future-focused solutions.” Not to mention, Parker added with a straight face, “shovel-ready” jobs.

That’s what his “municipal vulnerability planning program” is all about. That, of course, and the 62-cent-a-gallon gas tax he’s been dreaming of.

Oh, I’d love to see Charlie defending TCI in a campaign next year, especially during a Republican primary. All we need is 80,239 signatures to put TCI on the ballot — Charlie Parker’s last stand.

Listen to Howie’s radio show from 3-7 p.m. today on WRKO-AM 680.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3gXxSfh