Letters to the Editor
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bigger gasoline tax needed to save america
basically there are all kinds of plans to help our energy self suffiency, for one there are these absurd cafe fuel standards, when they were created, americans bought "trucks" (read SUVs) where were exempt from the particular CAFE standards, and lacking that would buy imports, you name it, legislation to improve fuel standards by legislating them has not worked, will never work, and is a waste of our money and a waste of time in detroit. There are all kinds of plans to refund money via tax rebates to solar and wind and biofuels, and you see what that leads to, it leads to massive world wide hunger because we are using our corn where it takes a 1 gallon of petrolum to create 1.1 gallons of biofuel, a ridiculous waste of time and energy, creating nothing but hunger because that corn is no longer available to the world.
One thing has worked, will work and has always worked. Gasoline taxes. A fuel tax helps to gently bring america into the realization that we will have to drive smaller cards, move closer to work, suburb masions will decline in value, city properties will go up, white flight will slowly reverse as people move back to urban centers to save on high fuel costs, all the simple important things that have to be done and will be done, they all stem from one source: High Fuel Prices.
A $1 a gallon gasoline tax is the best way to do this. It will gently usher in an era where americans no longer drive 1 to an SUV 50 miles each way. We will end up spending the same amount on fuel, but we will be driving cars like the VW diesel jetta (diesels are better for long trips) or a prius hybrid (hybrids are better for stop and go traffic).
Reducing the federal tax is exactly like a drunk getting up in the morning and feeding his hangover with another drink.
The problem is that fuel prices will spike in the next 5 years, that's a given. We want to give americans a gentle push in the right direction, with less americans buying SUVs and trucks, detroit will be forced to produce more economical cars. If this tax relief works, it will be a temporary fix of the worst order, it will lead detroit, and americans to the belief that gasoline is going to be cheap again, and then like a 3 week bender, it will all end.
As for legislating the oil companies to have less profits, talk about one of the stupidest things you can do. You want massive oil shortages, remember the lines at the gasoline pumps during the OPEC crises? You want to legislate cheap oil, control the oil companies so they don't profit, decrease the gasoline tax, this is a real good way to destroy the capitalistic market in america and lead to rationing, ration cards and gasoline shortages.
This entire idea is a big mess. Of course it's pandering.
I used to read salon because I generally agreed with what salon.com had to say. While I still read it, now a days, I read it the same way that I read hotair.com just to see what idiotic idea of the day these ideological blowhards are saying.