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February 03, 2009
Lugar Backs $1 Gas Tax to Force Energy Changes
Lugar backs $1 gas tax to force energy changes
Every gallon of gas should cost $1 more, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said, so Americans buy less and the country imports less foreign-produced oil.
In a column in today’s Washington Post, Lugar endorsed the proposal of a conservative columnist, who advocated the $1-a-gallon tax last month.
Charles Krauthammer said the $1 tax should be returned to people through lower payroll taxes or higher Social Security payments so their out-of-pocket expenses are the same.
“Americans sent nearly $430 billion to other countries in 2008 for the cost of imported oil – an amount equal to almost half of President Obama’s stimulus package,” Lugar wrote. “Those hundreds of billions should be spent to build a new energy economy here, not shipped to dangerous regimes overseas.”
Lugar said there’s recent evidence that higher pump prices make Americans use less gas.
“When gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon last year,” he said, “Americans chose to use less, leading to a major drop in gasoline consumption.”
That’s a good thing, Lugar has said repeatedly, because it makes the country less reliant on oil-producing countries that threaten U.S. national security. Three years ago he called dependence on foreign oil “the albatross of national security.”
“Nearly every major foreign policy challenge we face is aggravated by our continued addiction to oil,” he wrote in the Washington Post column, pointing to what can happen when energy is used as a weapon, such as Russia’s vise on Ukraine. Russia provides nearly all of Ukraine’s heating oil and has raised prices or restricted exports during two cold winters.
“A new president and changed economic conditions offer the chance to take a bold step toward freeing our nation from the grip of foreign petroleum,” Lugar wrote.
Lugar said governments have two ways of changing people’s behavior: make it illegal or tax it. A price increase through higher taxes, he said, is “almost always the most efficient, least invasive and most transparent remedy for market failure.”
He said increasing the cost of filling a gas tank would underscore the true cost of “our oil addiction” that includes not only the price of a barrel of oil but the “national security, economic vulnerability and environmental damage” of imported oil.
With higher gas prices, Lugar said, consumers would demand more fuel-efficient vehicles, choose non-petroleum alternatives to power them and find public-transit options that work.
“Pricing gasoline to reflect its true cost to the nation would help spur a vast market in which oil alternatives such as advanced biofuels would become competitive and innovation would flourish,” he said.
Lugar said Krauthammer’s suggestion for returning the $1-a-gallon tax to consumers is an important part of the idea. If reducing the payroll tax and increasing Social Security payments is too complicated, he said, “the government could regularly send a check to everyone over 18.”
Lugar is the first senator to endorse the $1-a-gallon tax and said he’s ready to work with the Obama administration to push it.
The White House has not commented directly on Lugar’s proposal. But in December, Obama said he opposes a gas tax that would be used for developing alternative energy.
“Putting additional burdens on American families right now, I think, is a mistake,” Obama said in a December “Meet the Press” interview. But he was not asked about the idea of increasing the price of gas with a per-gallon tax that would be refunded to consumers.
Lugar wrote that “no tax is perfect, and some special provisions may be necessary for individuals and groups disproportionately affected. But we as a nation are already suffering every day from our oil dependence, and decisive measures are needed.”
Wild Thing's comment........
"Lugar said there’s recent evidence that higher pump prices make Americans use less gas"
LMAO oh my gosh, I hope he did not lose any sleep over figuring this gem out.
What the heck has happened to ,Drill, Baby Drill? I miss that and we need it!!!!
Rather then supporting activities that will result in more and cheaper energy supplies, these dopes want to stay focused on policies that force the american people to pay more, use less and allow the government to control their lives.
RINOs are going to be the death of this country when they work with democrats.
.
.... Thank you John for sending this to me.
John
US Navy
62-68
Posted by Wild Thing at February 3, 2009 05:44 AM
Comments
Nothing like shooting the messengers of conservatism, eh Hoosier RINO?
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at February 3, 2009 08:27 AM
MY Gosh!!! Lugar wants to increase gasoline tax and Obama is against it? This is one time I'll support Obama over a-holes like Luger.
Jerk Luger isn't some guy trying to support his wife and kids on a $15 an hour job while having to drive 20 miles one way to work. That jerkwad doesn't have a clue how much it hurts people to fill up with high gas prices. Idiot!!!
Posted by: BobF at February 3, 2009 10:27 AM
Right, tax gas more. What will they do with that tax money? Blow it on some social programs probably.
If the government would remove restrictions on drilling, the oil companies will use their own money to develop new oil fields and supply all the oil Amerca needs and at cheaper prices.
Lugar is a RINO!
Posted by: TomR at February 3, 2009 11:01 AM
Another Rino like McCain wants to raise the gas tax. Our minority becomes smaller and smaller as the rinos migrate to the magic negro.
Posted by: Mark at February 3, 2009 01:29 PM
Mort Kondracke is another so called "conservative" columnist who REALLY PISSES ME OFF. Along with bashing Rush and Palin, the other day he called Southerners "uneducated." Can you believe that sh!t? Am I also a "backwards trigger-happy racist right-wing fanatic" just because I'm a Southerner and I Like my Guns, My American, Texas, AND Confederate Flags, My Copy of the Constitution, My Bible, and My Rosary? I'm also in The Military so I guess that also makes me an "imperialist" a "baby-killer" a "mercenary" and a "fascist" too doesn't it?
Posted by: JohnE PFC U.S. Army at February 3, 2009 06:08 PM
Yes JohnE PFC, you are all of those things and we're glad to have you on our side.
Posted by: cuchieddie at February 3, 2009 06:36 PM
If Senator Screw-ur urr Lugar had to retire without his ill-gotten political pension and benefits and had to figure how he would get to the store to buy his family groceries he would wipe that silly smile off of his face. Just another Rino POS leech sucking the blood out of the American citizens. They don't have a clue, any of them.
Bob A.
Posted by: Bob A at February 3, 2009 06:44 PM
Darth, pretty soon our paychecks will just be deposited into some govenment fund and they will just give us what they think we need. Not really but it sure feels like that is what they want.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 3, 2009 07:26 PM
BobF, yes I was surprised Obama didn't jump on Lugars idea.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 3, 2009 07:28 PM
Tom, I agree, they would just set up more handout programs with the money.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 3, 2009 07:31 PM
Mark, yes our side shrinks like that and then they will want our vote again. No thank you.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 3, 2009 07:33 PM
JohnE PFC U.S. Army, me too. It used to be that Kondracke could always be counted on for a great article and nothing in it that read like a rino. But with Obama I noticed he sounds more and more like a total rino lately.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 3, 2009 07:43 PM
Cuchieddie, Thanks I'm glad to be on our side too.
Posted by: JohnE PFC U.S. Army at February 3, 2009 07:44 PM
Bob A., yes, if they would just let us drill, oh my gosh it would solve a ton of things happening.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 3, 2009 07:45 PM
