Inogenius

In the past 8 years, George W. Bush has constantly reminded us 3 things. Terrorism, addiction to middle eastern oil, and global warming. Why don't we solve all 3, through one move? Why don't we raise the gas tax?

Many countries who support terrorism, are also members of OPEC, and produce a significant amount of oil consumed by the United States. You raise the gas tax, you're going to lower demand, while simultaneously increasing the demand for alternatives. This shift in demand, first results in lower revenues for OPEC members, but it also raises the demand for cars like the Telsa Roadster.

So please, George W. Bush, listen to people like Alan Greenspan, Al Gore, and Paul Volcker, and as your last act as President of the United States, raise the federal gas tax.

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DD

Terry, your saying this like people just jump in their car and aimlessly drive around just because they can.

Personally as a father of two on 1 income, the difference between 4.25 a gallon and 1.85 a gallon is a life saver. I save hundreds.........yes hundreds of dollars on gas a month now.

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Assassin™

Considering how cheap gas is now, unless the gas tax is raised by some ridiculous amount, it's not going to have the effect of solving the problems you've mentioned (and I'm truly interested in how you think a higher gas tax is going to solve terrorism).

It wouldn't be a bad idea in general seeing as how low the price of gas is now. It's something I could see Obama doing pretty quickly after taking office. It would be a simple way to increase tax revenue without really hurting anyone's wallet, and without being labeled a "socialist" for doing so. But I seriously doubt Bush is aiming to do anything constructive during this lame duck session.

Doctor Doom

You got to be kidding me Inogenius. You must be high when you said you want the gas tax to rise up. People like DD are saving a whole lot of money now since gas and oil have dropped and you want them to go back up and people can afford to finally pay their bills. It's like asking Bush to legalize gay marriage all over the US. Why should Bush listen to clowns like Al Gore, Alan Greenspan, and Paul Volcker, gas is fine the way it is.

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Toaster Oven

Someone is a bigot, and doesn't know how to correlate two subjects at all.

I can't even remember what Terry posted after this shocker of a comment.

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The Brain

I don't think he was saying gay marriage was bad, just saying how unlikely it is for Bush to legalize it.

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Doctor Doom

Exactly! It's all out of context CP. Calling me a fucking bigot one more time and I'll report it to the admins.

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Inogenius

I'm not saying raise the price of gasoline back to $4.25 a gallon. But what about a rate of $2.25-$2.50 a gallon? It still accomplishes it's goal, because people will cut back on usage even when the increase is that small.

Hey! I just listen to the experts, like Alan Greenspan who said it was a national security issue. However, seeing as a large majority of middle eastern countries, who support terrorism, are also oil producing countries, one can only assume they use the revenues generated by the oil they sell to give to terrorist organizations. You reduce their revenues by slowing demand, you reduce the amount they're able to give to terrorists. It won't solve terrorism, but it certainly won't hurt it.

Reduce your usage? No one said you had to live out in the hills and work in the city. You chose that life style. Danny lives in Boston. Public transit is available to use. Not to mention, he'd be helping out fellow Monker, Rambo.

If Obama does it, I'll become a fan of his instantly. Of course you know in 2012, people will use it against him. If McCain is still alive, I can just see, "My friends, that guy over there introduced a gas tax. I'll repeal it immediately, so you can have your hard earned money to spend."

Not to mention, lets just imagine. Assume somehow the federal budget has a surplus. This means, they can reduce taxation in other areas, like on our income tax, which allows us to increase our spending in other areas. Wouldn't it be nice to actually choose what you get taxed on based on your consumption?

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Toaster Oven

Considering his normal political stance, it's not hard to think that he would be saying it's a bad thing, just like he's correlating it to another thing he thinks is bad, i.e. raising the gas tax. His past posts don't do him any favors tbh.

omg im so scared of you bigot.

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Assassin™

Do I detect a sense of sarcasm in the description of Alan Greenspan as an "expert"? If not...then I apologize...

Please do name some of these Middle Eastern countries who "support terrorism" (and try to mask the Fox New-esque propaganda while doing so). No, that wasn't an invitation to literally start listing countries, I'm just saying that it's a little incurious of you to generalize Middle Eastern countries like that, then deduce that they are just funneling oil profits to terrorists. I'm not really challenging anything here specifically, just pointing out that it's much more complicated than that.

Regardless, there are better ways to get off of imported oil than just raising taxes (emphasis on imported oil in general, not specifying from where, as a reference to U.S. energy independence). Wind, solar, water, coal, nuclear, increased domestic drilling, higher efficiency standards, etc. There are countless other ways to curb the United States' addiction to foreign oil other than raising gas taxes.

So...how would that not just be trading taxes for other taxes? I honestly don't see income taxes going down significantly any time soon. Raising the gas tax would not give the government's tax revenue THAT much of a boost that we'll have a surplus. You forget, it's going to cost a lot to fix everything Bush has screwed up.

...is that not the exact concept behind sales tax?