More Nonsense Policy from Obama

Our government loves hypcorisy. Remeber, if it isn't hypocratic or it actually makes sense, it has to do with the government.

 

"The idea behind the bill is to set up a travel promotion board that will buy television, radio, print and web ads urging foreigners to come to America and giving them advice about how to navigate visa and security requirements."

My guess is the members of the board assume their advertisements will draw in more tourists than the fee will push away. Perhaps the fee is meant to fund the initiative? I don't think the $10 was intended to make more people travel to the US...

 

Nor would I imagine an extra $10 in fees would drive away perspective tourists....

 

Anyone who travels internationally knows there will be visa fees, departure taxes, entrance fees, etc. $10 is cheap compared to most countries.

Edited to add that this was bipartisan bill, not "from Obama".

 

Was this posted as a form of satire?

 

wait how is this gonna create 40,000 jobs?

 

Please refer to my post. I refuse to believe anyone involved in any US administration would theorize that an increase in travel fees would stimulate tourism.

Rather, the alternative that's plainly in our face is that the board plans to run an advertising campaign (yes, at the rate of about $8mil/mo.) to stimulate U.S tourism. The fee is likely a way to fund this program. And as Sam pointed out, a $10 fee can in no logical way compel what would otherwise be a raring-to-go international traveler to decide "what?! A $10 fee amounting to less than a single percent of my ticket fee? FUCK THIS I'M STAYING HOME!"...

And Skunk, I believe the logic is that if all this goes according to plan, more tourists will come to visit the U.S ==> more money pumped into our economy ==> via some sort of economic formula(s) , more jobs.

 

The collectivists (who may have delayed brain development) do not understand that every useless government agency (such as this one) is a burden on the taxpayer (no matter how many lame government paper-pushing "jobs" it creates).

You are spot on this is a perfect example of government inefficiency and waste. Tax us real workers more to create stupid desk jobs that produce nothing and serve no purpose.

Take from one to give to another, the moral and practical failure of collectivism. Those who do not wear rose colored glasses will see this.

 

All American's in this thread so far... none of you would be affected.

As a non-American I can say I wouldn't even care in the slightest paying $10 more. Hell, most people would still pay $50 more. Airline tickets to America are hella expensive. This makes practically no difference and would not be a determining factor for any traveller.

Many countries do something similar. Surely it's just a tax on foreigners who wouldn't be paying other taxes in your country anyway... bringing more money into the US. Why would any of you be against that? Course a $10 fee won't directly bring more people in, but the advertisement revenue generated surely will. Is that not obvious? Or do people against Obama just criticise every government bill passed now? Even if it's a bipartisan one?

 

This could work.

According to Wikipedia, Time Square gets 35 million foreign visitors a year. Multiply that by $10 and you get $350 million dollars, against $8 million/month we gotta pay for this. We could see a good residual of the collected fee, if everything runs smoothly.

 

Exactly. Think about all of the tourist spots the US has, from Grand Canyon to Disneyworld. $10 is peanuts compared to all the fees associated with traveling internationally. We're charging it because people will pay it. And yes, hopefully some good money management will come out of the program and we'll see some benefits from that revenue.

Charging for baggage didn't exactly bankrupt airlines, and those fees are upwards of five times higher (I just paid $25 each way for my bag on a domestic flight).

 

they should at least give a coupon for a free big mac with that $10.00 fee.. just to make things fair.

 

I think that is a decision we need to leave for the states these tourists fly into. We can't expect our federal government to be making these kinds of decisions.

I mean, what if someone likes whoppers better?

 

i hear ya man.. but then you'd have to consider wendy's as a 3rd choice. Which would just be a wasted vote in a 2 burger system.

 

This program hasn't even been implemented yet. Why are you already reaching a conclusion without examining the results?

Let's assume for a moment it does work out very well. Let's assume the investment of $8 million a month demonstrably and consistently generates $80 million in additional tourist revenue. Let's just assume that scenario for a moment - would it still be a "waste"?



On a personal note, the thing that dissuades me from visiting the United States and putting my foreign currency into the local economies of my neighbor is not the $10 fee -- It's your brand of insanely non-pragmatic idealism which scares the shit out of me. Also the whole cultural colonialism thing, but that's another can of high-fructose corn syrup, as it were.

 

We're already falling to this level of discourse?

Please elaborate.

 

Typical government nonsense.

"Hey, let's fix a bureaucracy problem with more bureaucracy! Brilliant!"