New York Times: Tax Gas to $4 – $5 a Gallon Minimum
While occasional NYT carmudgeon Ezra Dyer’s busy celebrating high horsepower motor cars, his paymaster’s editorial board has announced their desire to have the incoming administration tax the bejesus out of the go-juice fueling Dyer’s cool whips (Bryan?). After bemoaning the lowered price of fuel’s dampening effect on Americans’ desire to buy the fuel-efficient vehicles that Uncle Sam, in his infinite wisdom, has mandated, The Times gets down to business. “There are several ways to tax gas. One would be to devise a variable consumption tax in such a way that a gallon of unleaded gasoline at the pump would never go below a floor of $4 or $5 (in 2008 dollars), fluctuating to accommodate changing oil prices and other costs. Robert Lawrence, an economist at Harvard, proposes a variable tariff on imported oil to achieve the same effect and also to stimulate the development of domestic energy sources.” BUT WHAT ABOUT THE POOR PEOPLE? “In both cases, the fuel taxes could be offset with tax credits to protect vulnerable segments of the population.” Uh, is a major recession really the best time to raise the price of a basic commodity? No but…
“If the Obama administration is to meet its twin objectives of reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and cutting its emissions of greenhouse gases, it needs to start thinking now about mechanisms to curb the nation’s demand for energy when the economy emerges from recession in the future.”
Interesting. Put that one on the back burner for us, will ya? Thanks.
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AgentX, Nonsense. I have stated already that working poor people don't pay gas taxes. See the original post for more info.
Are you talking about public transportation or tax credit. For the first, you're mistaking 'urban' for 'poor', and the second is essentially making the tax more progressive, but how would that even be implemented? You save up your reciepts?