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Let's raise the gas tax $2.00/gallon and pay directly to the wealthiest.
*"We are the laughing stock of Europe because we keep [gasoline] taxes so cheap," notes Matthew Simmons, chairman of a Houston-based investment bank for the energy industry, Simmons & Co. International
A modest proposal:
Jumping off from a suggestion broached by (!) Charles Krauthammer (noted radical...) that the gas tax be raised $2.00/gallon and the resulting income be used to lower the payroll tax burden (clearly a non-starter), in the interest of saving the planet, let us propose the only gas tax increase with a prayer of success.
Pay the resulting funds directly to the wealthiest 400 Americans.
I know, I know--they don't need it. But it's the only way we'll get the market based outcome that is needed to force conservation. This particular redistribution of income will sail through congress and be signed by G-dub before the cherry blossoms fall from the trees in D.C.
*http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0502/p25s01-wmgn.html
Comments (1)
The only thing I don't like about a $2.00/gallon gas tax - heck, make it $4.00! That'd be fine with me!* - is that it would probably hurt working class Americans the most. But it would reduce fuel consumption, and therefore emissions, and the revenue could provide ample funding for alternative energy research and some other tax relief.
* Here's where I note I was taking my own quote out of context. The fuller context was "so long as ordinary Americans aren't unduly burdened by doubling the price of gas."
May 1, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
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