Hawaii: Proof of insurance required to buy gas?

[Pat McCotter]

Proof of insurance required to buy gas?

You can tell the right-wing Hawaii Senate has the insurance racket in its back pocket caressing its pelvic area.

Last month, lawmakers approved a resolution to urge the state insurance commissioner to find a way to require motorists to present proof of car insurance just to buy (ppphh!) gas.

The resolution appears to be typed on a typewriter and thus looks like an old Last Word from 1993 - except that its political stance is the precise polar opposite:

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/Bills/SCR101_.pdf (Warning!!! Legislatve document - 2 pages long - with Whereas and therefore inside!!!)

Let's get a few things straight here. While lawmakers complain that 1 in 5 drivers in Hawaii are uninsured, studies keep showing that a much lower percentage of cars involved in accidents are uninsured. Sounds to me like uninsured drivers are actually safer than the insured! And I would believe that.

And since the resolution cites the fact that the rate of uninsured drivers will increase because of unemployment, why aren't legislators doing anything about unemployment?

This insurance card proposal is driven by insurance company greed. Its legality is highly questionable too, as it runs roughshod over the notion of requiring probable cause.

Is this the country's future? Unless people push back, prepare for the worst. How many Americans 30 years ago would have ever thought we'd see fascist policies like Real ID?

But this may not matter much. I can seriously see the day when right-wing lawmakers require cars to carry an electronic box that lets authorities shut the car off by remote control if they find out the driver flunked high school 20 years earlier or has an outstanding cable bill.

So it looks like most folks won't even make it to the gas station to have to worry about being carded.

[doobie]

Let's get a few things straight here. While lawmakers complain that 1 in 5 drivers in Hawaii are uninsured, studies keep showing that a much lower percentage of cars involved in accidents are uninsured. Sounds to me like uninsured drivers are actually safer than the insured! And I would believe that.

Of course they know if they get into an accident they will be screwed so they driver more carefully...for the most part.

[thinkliberty]

Do you have to have insurance on your lawn motor too?

[KBCraig]

Proof of insurance required to buy gas?

You can tell the right-wing Hawaii Senate....

Now there's a characterization not often seen in reference to Hawaii!

[ByronB]

Proof of insurance required to buy gas?

You can tell the right-wing Hawaii Senate....

Now there's a characterization not often seen in reference to Hawaii!

Yeah, I thought that didn't seem right either so I looked it up... 23 out of 25 Hawaii senate members belong to the democratic party, all of there congressional representatives belong to the left wing, they do have a republican (female) governor though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Senate

[ByronB]

Not to get all political but the left wing gets bought off by "big business" just as easily as the right wing it seems.

[David]

Not to get all political but the left wing gets bought off by "big business" just as easily as the right wing it seems.

Yup. 
Though this is a good example where some on the left doesn't really like gov't unless it is 'their' guys, and then they don't really trust them either.  I'd be curious if the writer thought they were 'dems in name only', or just didn't know they were dems.  It is one of the reasons I respect the left a bit more than the stereotypical law and order types on the right.  They both feel the same way about their party, but the left has little respect for the crooked laws, and are more activist oriented to fight them. 

[KBCraig]

Not to get all political but the left wing gets bought off by "big business" just as easily as the right wing it seems.

That's the new, unstated definition of a "business friendly state" as seen in recent surveys: "business friendly" = "can be bought".

[Puke]

Hawaiians better invest in quality locking gas caps.