For A Gas Tax

Totally OT, but in case anyone wants to spend the evening watching one of the worst movies ever made (just for the sheer fun of it), pick up Druids. It is an epic, and an epic fail.

Let's not forget the little, high gas mileage, rolling coffins the Smart Cars. Has anyone come up with a photo of what happens to one once they meet a larger car. Don't want to be there or in the Smart car in that case.

Agsin Krauthammer or as I call him "Krackerjack" is just trying to scam the American middle class with another Republican shell game

Back to the original gas tax suggestion, I don't see why it has to be revenue neutral. Taxas are necessary to raise revenue to provide what government is supposed to do. It's like there can be no tax discussion without putting taxes down, bad, bad. It is lunacy. What people don't like is taxation without representation, back to the original revolution. But tax discussion gets way off the purpose of it to begin with. The only point I make here is that tax is necessary. Never any discussion or consideration of that fact, only avoidance, reduction, credits, getting out of it.

Krauthammer's idea is Teh Stupid on multiple levels:

* The income effect is only neutral for people who happen to drive the average amount. Retake Econ 101 Dr. K and re-learn difference between micro and macro economics.

* Not all gas consumers are people. What about businesses, particularly transportation and delivery related businesses. This $14 payroll tax rebate works how for them? He simply dismisses this as something "some small bureaucracy" (funded by what? This program is revenue neutral!) can resolve with extra rebates and/or credits. The Weekly Standard and Chuckles K are advocating for new bureaucracy. Could there be a clearer 'tell' that this is hokum?

* It's not revenue neutral because if you reduce consumption of gas you reduce tax revenue received from the currently existing gas tax structure.

* Dr. Strangehammer surely sees this as a back door way to undermine Social Security funding. Note he's quite specific about where the rebate funding should come from, while remaining entirely silent on where the new gas tax revenue should directed. Even if I'm wrong, do we really want to shift some of SSI/Medicare funding to be reliant on the gas tax? That's not change I can believe in...

"I harbor no illusions that Obama will spend political capital on a tax that would play into the hands of Rush and such, but let's be honest: this is, without doubt, the most elegant way to lower carbon emissions and dependence on foreign oil."
.
So how 'bout a column on how rational and essential major policy prescriptions are rendered impossible by right-wing, "conservative" liars and propagandists, propped up and paid for by a handful of rich, maladjusted elites. Really, isn't that the story of the last thirty years (at least).
.
Oh, I see, (rich) dog bites man. Never mind.

Joe Klein asserts: "Krauthammer remains unconvinced that global warming is man-made."

Wow. Next week Klein will inform us that "Krauthammer remains unconvinced that the tooth fairy exists."

The "global warming" hoax is the kind of comical, thoroughly discredited fraud that only the most stupid, naive fools would ever believe.

Klein and Time magazine should go back to promoting the "global cooling"/"catastrophic ice age" hoax.

Hah. A gas tax is good and well for those who live in areas where public transportation is an option or a "choice." I work in a rural area, and I have the shortest commute out of anyone I work with (40 minutes each way). At the height of the gas crisis this fall, I was devoting over 12% of my take-home income to gasoline to get to and from work.

It's also good and well for those who can afford it to upgrade their vehicles to fuel efficient hybrids. This is a select, elite few! We must face it: this is a scary situation. I graduated from an Ivy League school back in 2007 and have friends who have already been laid off from their first jobs, or who are STILL looking.

The fuel tax is not a "progressive" tax. It hurts the working class, small business owners, and the working poor most of all. Even before all of this hit the fan, back in 2007 those making than $10,000 a year were spending 12 percent of their income on gasoline. Those earning more than $50,000 spent 4 percent.

Small businesses would be decimated by this tax. Diesel has not gone back down as unleaded has and is still sitting at almost $3.00/gal. in some areas. It's been interesting to see a large percentage of small businesses that rely upon trucking go under. At the height of this, my dad was spending over $1,000 a day to fill his truck for his small logging business. I guess we need to ask ourselves if we'd rather have income tax revenue from solvent businesses, or a gas tax. I know that this $1.00 gas tax would be the difference between life and death, solvency and defeat for many small business owners just like him. This is not the time or the place for this.

[...] Jump to Comments im all for one. always have been. i suppose thats easy to say in a city with great public transportation. but im [...]

[...] proposes a gas tax, balanced by a payroll tax reduction. Joe Klein applauds: Krauthammer is, not surprisingly, more sympathetic to the national security arguments for higher [...]

[...] article in the current Weekly Standard, this time getting picked up by Sully and I’m sure others, who are latching on to his idea. This is an idea that will empower mobsters and encourage [...]