The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    Let's raise the gas tax $2.00/gallon and pay directly to the wealthiest.

    By jollyroger on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 2:12pm |
    *"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