A gas tax increase doesn’t kidney punch consumers as much as in previous years. When gas was $1.75 a gallon, a gas tax increase looked pretty nasty, as it would proportionally add a great deal to the cost of transportation. But now that fuel-efficient cars are far more common and gas prices are already higher, even a large increase in the gas tax would not proportionally raise transportation costs all that much.
So if the government put a $0.50 tax on top of every gallon...somehow that's different to my checkbook when gas is $1.75 than when gas is $3.75? I drive an average of 37 miles every working day, round trip. I get 17 miles per gallon in my pickup on average. I drive to work 260 days a year. That's a $565 dollar increase in my gas cost...no matter what the price of gas is pre-tax.
Then we get this gem:
And to the extent that it might impact the working poor who must rely on older and less fuel efficient cars to get to work (especially given the continuing lack of reliable and safe public transport in many cities), the effect could be mitigated by a needs-based voucher system entitling them to discounts and operated through the food stamps program.
Wow, way to simplify the tax code. What I really like about this plan is its insistence on passing taxes while also immediately including a way to get out of paying those taxes. This plan seems especially brilliant, considering later on the GOP could cut funding to the "gas stamps program" in the name of lower deficits and it wouldn't hurt their rich friends at all.
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