New York Times: Tax Gas to $4 – $5 a Gallon Minimum

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

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.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Don1967 Don1967 on Dec 30, 2008
    I want much less government involvement. If we destroy the IRS and in its place create a flax tax on carbon, it will eliminate the single biggest Federal nose in my tent. They’ll just collect the tax from the energy companies. So the IRS is going to be destroyed if we all sign up for a "carbon tax" scam? I'd like that in writing, please. As for the climate change issue, there has never been a meeting of scientific minds that was not politically biased. When a thousand scientists commissioned by the U.N. unanimously declare that there should be no further debate on the subject, and that we must immediately start redistributing the world's wealth, I become very concerned and very interested in what the dissenters (who were not invited, and who get shouted down in public forums like this one) have to say. And many of them say "hogwash", that climate change is as natural as sunrise. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050212195414.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change
  • U mad scientist U mad scientist on Dec 30, 2008
    Your willingness to export borrowed American money abroad to our enemies does cost me something. You're conflating buying oil with debt. We're getting something of value, they get currency which is useful for a multiplicity of things. And if there's anyone getting screwed if they buy bonds, it's the foreigner who gets an IOU for all their natural resources. Landcrusher's support for a gas tax is even funnier. Apparently he doesn't support taxing anything unless it's on poor people. Now, that said, I'm not necessarily against a higher gas tax, and if the reason is for energy conservation in general, then make it part of a wider plan.
  • Landcrusher Landcrusher on Dec 30, 2008

    AgentX, Nonsense. I have stated already that working poor people don't pay gas taxes. See the original post for more info.

  • U mad scientist U mad scientist on Dec 30, 2008

    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?

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