- Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida has been fighting to cut 10 cents from the state’s gasoline tax for two weeks in July. Lawmakers in Missouri, New York and Texas have also proposed a summer break from state gas taxes,..... 'It’s about trying to serve the people and trying to understand and have caring, compassionate hearts for what they’re dealing with at the kitchen table,' said Mr. Crist, a Republican. He added, 'I’m supposed to respond to the people and try to make them happy.' [Respond, absolutely; "try to make them happy" - not always can do or should try to do.]
- But Chrysler is addressing its customers' fuel-cost concerns by trying to help them ignore the problem. Chrysler has just announced that, instead of making its vehicles more efficient (thus saving customers money) it's simply going to charge more for large trucks, and use the money to artificially deflate customers' gas prices to $2.99 per gallon for three years after purchase. And then the well suddenly runs dry and vehicle owners are stuck with a car that neither they, nor anyone else, wants, in a world where gas costs, at best, more than $4 per gallon.
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Barring a technological breakthrough (which, by the way, would best be spurred by a federal tax shift), any real solution needs to change our mindset with respect to energy use, not avoid a change. We can begin this work ourselves, or have it thrust upon us (kind of like what's happening with oil prices now, but much worse).
"It’s about trying to serve the people and trying to understand and have caring, compassionate hearts for what they’re dealing with at the kitchen table,' ... 'I’m supposed to respond to the people and try to make them happy."
Wow, that should be added to the dictionary definition of Pandering.
And recall just a few years ago Wisconsin ended the practice of indexing the gas tax to inflation to keep it in "constant dollars". The legislature complained that indexing was an annual "tax increase" that they didn't pass.
Likewise a 5% sales tax increases the tax each time the price increases, but they didn't think of it that way. And Doyle signed the bill, resulting in a decrease in the "real" gas tax each year.
The basic problem is misunderstanding the problem: it is not that the price of gas is "too high" (it is much too low), but that the supply is not keeping up with demand.
During the 1970's when the price of gas was thought to be "too high", the response was price controls. Which replaced high price with shortages, long lines, and even or odd filling days. And new cars with larger gas tanks. Some "solution" Reply to this
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