A Modest Proposal - Gasoline Taxes

Everyone is talking about how "high" gasoline prices are now in the US. One brave soul testifying to congress yesterday actually suggested that the best way to reduce America's dependency on foreign oil would be an increase in gasoline taxes. Yes, raise the price of gasoline. Think congress would consider this? Not if they want to be re-elected.

But lets take a quick look at the numbers. We are spending $10 billion per month fighting George's war in Iraq. According to the US Government Energy Information Administration we consume roughly 20 million barrels per day. A barrel is about 42 gallons of gas. So that 840 million gallons of gas per day. Or 25 billion gallons per month. So a $0.50 per gallon fuel tax would pay for the Iraq war and have money left over to rebuild New Orleans.