It’s been a rocky few months for John Q. and Jane Public. First, it was the high gasoline prices and even higher diesel prices, the latter of which made the price of groceries and everything else shipped by 18-wheeler go up. Then came the financial meltdown, the mortgage fiasco, the tanking 401Ks and stocks, layoffs, etc. But then one little bright spot appeared as crude prices began to fall. Now with pump prices under $2 a gallon in many parts of the country, the Publics can fill up the family car’s tank without going into the bank account’s overdraft protection zone.
But the Washington Post’s editors would like to black out that one little bright spot. In an editorial appearing in the Sunday edition, they lament the fact that you sorry taxpayers just can’t be trusted to buy fuel-efficient cars:
…we fear that the temptation to return to gas-guzzling vehicles, to drive more and to forget the painful lessons learned last summer will be too great to resist.
That’s right. According to WaPo, the American people are just too darn stupid or absent-minded to stop themselves from rushing down to their local dealership and buying the largest, most gas-sucking SUV on the lot. Never mind that you’re trying to figure out how to pay the heating bill for the winter ahead, the editors of the Washington Post just know that deep down inside, you have an irresistible compulsion to go into more even debt for the next 72 months to finance a new energy-inefficient vehicle.
How do they know? Why Robert Samuelson told them so! Here’s the nightmare scenario and Doc Samuelson’s Rx for it:
A gas crisis leads to widespread calls for conservation, fuel-efficient cars and greater reliance on alternative sources of energy to help slip the yoke of imported oil. Then, as happened after the 1970s gas crunch, amnesia sets in the moment prices fall. One of the best ways to prevent a rerun is to raise the federal tax per gallon of gasoline. Mr. Samuelson made a worthy suggestion: Raise the gas tax a penny a month for 48 months.
That, say the font-of-wisdom editors, will help us achieve energy independence. That’s what it’s all about, right? Or perhaps not. After urging President-elect Obama to go “bold with dramatic action,” the editors conclude:
The United States cannot afford to backslide to its voracious, polluting ways as it did in the 1970s.
Oh, so now it’s about pollution. But if its really about energy independence and pollution, wouldn’t it be better to adopt the sensible half of the Pickens Plan and put more natural gas-powered vehicles on the road? After all, we’ve got trillions of cubic feet of the stuff, and trillions more have just been confirmed to exist in frozen hydrate form in Alaska. As for the pollution angle, natgas burns much cleaner than gasoline, ethanol or any other motor fuel currently available in any significant quantities.
Or perhaps it’s about other things. Perhaps it’s about a bunch of know-nothing elitists who just have to dictate that John Q. and Jane will have to do it their way or… well, not the highway. WaPo’s editors don’t want you of the great unwashed driving on the superslab unless you do it in micro-sized, goofy-looking aluminum cans on wheels that will fold up like Arabian tents if, God forbid, they should ever come into contact with anything larger or stronger.
And perhaps, too, it’s about the fact that liberals such as the Washington Post editors and their economic guru, the Maharishi Samuelson, just can’t let alone any taxes that haven’t been raised recently.
God help us if Obama, predisposed as he he is to raise taxes anyway, takes the advice of these clowns.
- JP
Cross-posted at Mainstream Conservative
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we are going to be inundated with Trial Balloons (perfecting the "Excuses")
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 12:59AM EST (link)We know the Democrats have been waiting for the opportunity. They’ve even occasionally done the Obamian slip (Spread the Wealth) equivalent in admitting so, which MSM gloss over. They were not successful in using the 35W tragedy to cry “Infrastructure” to allow a din and cry for them to “save us.”
Like they did not bemoan the increased Gasoline prices, just that they “rose too fast,” they have to be whining to each other behind closed doors that prices fell too fast. IMO, they had hoped they’d still be around $3.00/gal going into Inauguration day and then declining. That way it would be easy to “slide in increases” while prices fell – off-setting, but providing their Tax Windfall at Drivers’ expense yet having the blow mitigated. A Win-Win, to them, and Lose-Lose, to American consumers.
They will, of course, retread any and all arguments. Trial Balloons will block out the Sun, as they perfect their excuses… er… argument. Gas tax hikes under Democrat controlled Government are absolutely inevitable.
They do NOT care how much people have to suffer as they further destroy the economy, as long as they get their Funding windfalls. And, the MSM will go on covering the truth of the hows and why we got here ($4.00/gal gas). Just as they continue to cover the Mortgage meltdown actual culprits.
Regards from NoMoTown (the MOTORlessCITY)
“Liberals, looking to do for? America what they’ve done for? Detroit! which is DESTROY IT!”
“I think, therefore I am Conservative”
“Conservative by choice, Republican by necessity”
“You can lead a Liberal to the Truth/Facts, but you cannot make them THINK!”
“Romney [No, not my first choice] does NOT have a MORMON problem. He has a, far too many Americans; these days; are MORONS problem!”
Follow @JLenardDetroit
(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (message) (Warning: Children Will Die!!)
Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” – a Rush caller (other Quotes)
Anger!!!
DONTREADONME (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 1:02AM EST (link)Today in NOVA, we are enjoying $1.75/gallon. I am actually noticing that my CC bill has gone down considerably.
You made a good cause and effect relationship in the beginning of your diary. I have been looking for someone to connect the dots to how we got where we are now as far as economy is concerned.
Housing Bubble bursts, commodity prices go up, fuel prices go up, grocery prices go up, consumers begin being pinched, people living paycheck to paycheck in a home they can barely afford with less disposable income, interest rates change, people who lived somewhat comfortably begin to change their spending habits, less spending, less borrowing, less lending, time is up on the interest only loans, people lose jobs, foreclosures and Kaboom.
Cause and Effect, bleeding out our economy’s lifeblood causing extensive, and expansive downward spiral. Late 70′s anyone?
Expect at least 4 more years of sophism
Marcus_Traianus (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 1:04AM EST (link)The media will continue their assault on America’s common sense. They now have a vested interest in seeing their candidates succeed.
This Houdini act is all designed to show those of us who voted wisely and with factual grounding just how foolish we were to not believe their dishonest tripe.
The gas tax is for our own good since we can’t be trusted to think for ourselves. It is the nanny state and Marxism in tandem.
Forget that folks are trying to keep their jobs, manage mortgages and keep the household running. They will be overcome by the temptation to buy that big SUV again and throw what little cash they have into the tank.
Of course, folks also are not smart enough to realize gas prices are tied to economic conditions and once things recover, the prices will start to go back up. So make the state punish them for their inability to control their urges.
Welcome to the new Stalinist mindset; change indeed.
“Both of our political parties, at least the honest portion of them, agree conscientiously in the same object—the public good; but they differ essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers; the other, by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is right, time and experience will prove.”.Thomas Jefferson
Sorry, Lifeblood=Energy=oil
DONTREADONME (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 1:06AM EST (link)Mr smart WaPo man, we all drive gasoline cars right now, how can we afford those pricey alternative fuel vehicles? Man, this is the kind of idiotic idealism I expect from teenagers. This story hits a nerve with me.
Gas goes down and...
DONTREADONME (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 1:15AM EST (link)I am now saving $100.00/month in gas, but good news my county raised property tax 16% which negates my savings at the pump. Yee..hah, Tax and Spend, Tax and Spend. Thank you blue state of VA.
And another thing...
DONTREADONME (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 1:25AM EST (link)Our all fiscal ocnservatvie(cough,cough)governor Tim Kaine (D), best buddy of Sen. Mark Warner (D), the Senator who was governor and got lucky he had a Republican Legislature and the housing boom who calls himself a fiscal conservative (cough, choke), thought it was a good idea to raise gas taxes when gas was at its height of $4.10/gal.
Now that it is $1.75/gal. I wonder if he is reconsidering supporting a raise in the tax anywhere between $0.10-1.00. These are the times that a governor will (sneaking around, w/o the MSM telling us what is going before it is too late) have the ability to convince the RINOs in the VA Legislature to go along with raising the gasoline tax to pay the budget shortfalls.
As you can tell, I am infuriated with my state, my God, what have we elected.
That is it I promise, I am spent.
the return of Jimmy Carter
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 1:31AM EST (link)is exactly where we are going… This last little “hiccup” we had was just a PREVIEW of what will we be having Full-time if the Democrats get their way unencumbered.
Hyper inflation. Unemployment will be skyrocketing, as they squeeze the economy more in the name of trying to save it. The Misery Index (just google that term) will return.
They will be claiming to get us away from 70% dependence on foreign Oil, but their policies will just keep us dependant. The return of $4.00/gal is a given under Democrat Economic/Tax policies. Anyone that has just found RedState and, or living under a rock, not really known/investigated the Issues (in detail) of this Election and the consequences we now face because of it can find that via this link.
If you weren’t around the for the 70′s, and certainly not taught anything about that period other than Civil Rights and Nixon/Watergate/Ford lament of the Indoctrination Factories across America, let me take you back to a/that time when America was in shambles:
Byron MacGregor “The Americans”
Regards from NoMoTown (the MOTORlessCITY)
“Liberals, looking to do for? America what they’ve done for? Detroit! which is DESTROY IT!”
“I think, therefore I am Conservative”
“Conservative by choice, Republican by necessity”
“You can lead a Liberal to the Truth/Facts, but you cannot make them THINK!”
“Romney [No, not my first choice] does NOT have a MORMON problem. He has a, far too many Americans; these days; are MORONS problem!”
Follow @JLenardDetroit
(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (message) (Warning: Children Will Die!!)
Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” – a Rush caller (other Quotes)
Born in '76
DONTREADONME (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 1:40AM EST (link)Great year to be born, bad years to be in the U.S.A. My father made sure I knew everything about the late 70′s.
Unfortunatley, my father is a Democrat and wont vote for anything else and he is surprised that I am a Conservative. I told him you brought me up to be a Conservative and to understand history to try and prevent the 70′s from happening again. Unfortunately, It seems I was unsuccessful.
Nanny State and Marxism in tandem
Neil Stevens (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 2:09AM EST (link)They call that Progressivism, or as Jonah Goldberg put it, Liberal Fascism.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
even those who know History, too often run headlong toward it again
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 2:10AM EST (link)Sad, isn’t it? I was able to “get to” some in my Family (long line of Democrats), but know what you mean exactly. This is what happened in this Election, how many times have we discussed how the Obamabots delude themselves into seeing/hearing what they prefer rather than what is right in front of them. How many times are people willing to allow themselves to be received by promises from people that have NO RECORD/HISTORY of EVER even attempting to live up to the rhetoric they are trying to sell now?
The people that bubble to the top of the Democrat Party, regardless of any “decent” local Conservative Democrats, are always Far Left Liberals and do not resemble the Old Democrat Party, but they won’t see that! I have reached some and they vote Republican now, knowing that ANY Democrat vote (for ANY/ALL Offices) puts people like Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Stebanow (MI), Levin (MI), Granholm (MI-Gov), etc. in positions to exert greater power toward their Socialist tendencies. Even at State levels, the Leftists filter up and empower the worst that Party has to offer, never the best. This is NOT a Party of JFK types.
The Law of unintended consequences, that the Democrats always ignore and we always have to Pay for (like the the CRA leading to the Mortgage meltdown, like NOT DRILLING and 70% dependence on Foreign Oil and $4.00/gal gas and its impending return, etc) will again be repeated. We’ve not really gotten into how Obama/Democrats $urrender doctrine (how the Democrats always WEAKEN America – EVERY TIME THEY ARE IN CHARGE) is yet another return to FAILED POLICY (they love to make that statement) and historical repetition.
While it may feel like time to STOP banging our heads against these Brick Walls… Head injuries are better than the Death we face if we do not ultimately succeed. So keep on taking that Advil/Tylenol and HIT HEAD HERE!
Regards from NoMoTown (the MOTORlessCITY)
“Liberals, looking to do for? America what they’ve done for? Detroit! which is DESTROY IT!”
“I think, therefore I am Conservative”
“Conservative by choice, Republican by necessity”
“You can lead a Liberal to the Truth/Facts, but you cannot make them THINK!”
“Romney [No, not my first choice] does NOT have a MORMON problem. He has a, far too many Americans; these days; are MORONS problem!”
Follow @JLenardDetroit
(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (message) (Warning: Children Will Die!!)
Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” – a Rush caller (other Quotes)
And "fairness"
Next93 (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 7:24AM EST (link)Minor correction: As long as they get thier funding winfalls in a way that’s in keeping with thier twisted idea of what’s “fair”;
Unfortunately for us, thier definition of fairness means taxing everyone, then giving a government check to those people they define as being “more deserving”.
That way, it’s not QUITE socialism, you see.
Obama was The One in 2008.
He’ll be a BIGGER one in 2012.
Oh, good!
ss396 Sunday, November 16th at 7:44AM EST (link)We are all going to rush out and buy SUV’s because we are too stupid to know what’s good for us.
Well, then, I guess Detroit isn’t going to need that extra $25-billion bailout money after all. I wonder who the Dems will nominate to pass that good news to the UAW?
If you pay someone to sit on his butt, you can’t be surprised when he does.
I fear the near President Obama will reinmpose the drilling Ban
cowboyjon Sunday, November 16th at 9:17AM EST (link)I fear President Obama will reimpose the drilling ban and not let us go nuclear also and one of these day we will another energy shock and it will make this thing we have just been thur seem like a Christmas Party and as for me I still like my big diesel pickup and those people in Washington to wakeup to the fact that the only way they get their food and all their whiskey for their cocktail party is by an eighteen wheeled diesel powered truck
Samuelson Cribs From Scientific American
kowalski (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 9:57AM EST (link)Two minor quibbles for an otherwise fine article.
First of all, Samuelson isn’t even being original with this suggestion. The idea of gradually (or suddenly) raising gasoline taxes for an entire range of purposes, ranging from coercing people into more fuel-efficient vehicles to covering the gaping shortfalls in state budgets isn’t new by any means. Back in November of 2005, the editors of Scientific American were recommending approximately the same thing, or a variation of it. None of the people with buy-in to the AGW catastrophe want to see gasoline prices fall below $2.00 a gallon — they’d like to see it closer to what it was at its peak, except with the money going to what they call progressive and environmentally-reponsible social change.
At that time, it was Hurricane Katrina pushing the prices up and changing people’s driving habits due to supply disruptions; the editors at SciAm were recommending something that makes Samuelson sound like he cribbed it straight from an old copy under his desk:
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See my RedHot...but
kowalski (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 10:07AM EST (link)Here’s the relevant quote from their November, 2005 Editorial:
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