[IP] Passing Laws / Gas Mileage
------- Original message -------
From: Robert Lee <robertslee@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 7/4/'05, 12:36
Gorvernments have been passing laws since before the time of Hammurabi. If one
more law was the answer to our problems, our problems would have been handled a
long time ago. I propose one more law. The law is that in order for Congress
to pass one more law they have to repeal two. For example, the Sarbanes Oxley
Bi
ll is a travesty. Everything that it seeks to eradicate is already against the
law. All you have to do is enforce those laws.
You don't have to pass a law requiring car manufacturers to meet certain gas
mileage limitations. They merely respond to demand. You merely have to tax
gas gu
zzlers or tax gasoline. If you do not want gasoline consumption, tax it. The
taxation puts pressure on the supply side costs. More of the total gas dollar
wi
nds up in the hands of the tax payer, rather than the hands of the gas
companies and sultantates.
John Kerry was wrong on the 50 cents a gallon tax. It should have been twice
that. The only president in my time to legitimately address gas mileage was
Jimmy
Carter. Five minutes after he was out Ronald Reagan gutted it, as has every
president since then.
Do not try to regulate the manufacturers, tax the consumers.
I don't want my wife to drive her 11 mile per gallon SUV. But I also feel more
comfortable about her safety given the preponderance of them on the road. If yo
u want fewer of them on the road, tax them. The fewer there are, the fewer
there will be.
This is a concept well known to Congress, which actually offers a 10% tax
credit (not deduction) for purchasers of the Humvee. Sounds unlikely? Yes,
but true.
They will tell you it is an accident, a loophole. But they will not close
it. So is it an accident? No.
I am tired of hearing anti tax people suggest that taxing imparts values and
taxation should be values neutral. Nothing is values neutral. Dong nothing,
doing
something, it all imparts values.
Some problems ARE easy. Currently it is a travesty that people buy cars that
get 11 miles per gallon. But if the owners of those cars were paying the
freight
to clean up the damage caused by their usage, then so be it.
Two weeks ago I pulled into a gas station. The pump, left by the previous
customer, was stopped at exactly $75. Even cents. My first car was $73.
Robert Lee
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