Improved Clinch

This From a Man Who Doesn't Even Have a License

Andrew Sullivan points to his own Time article, calling for raising gas taxes, from his blog, with the following.

"TAX GAS MORE: All of your opposition merely convinced me I was right. Here’s my Time column on why raising gas taxes would be a very good thing. Here’s Ramesh Ponnuru’s critique. Make your own mind up."

One particular paragraph in Sulliivan’s Time piece is especially noteworthy, for its glaring idoicy.

"The real reason so many Americans hate gas taxes is that they see them. The government can eat away at your life with payroll taxes, but because they are usually deducted before you get to see your paycheck, you don’t notice. But the price of gas is broadcast on big placards across the country. When it goes up, eyebrows rise a notch. But that’s a good thing! The government has to tax you somehow. Isn’t it better to shift taxation to places where people notice it, so they can demand accountability? The gas tax is therefore a win-win conservative-liberal synthesis. It cuts the deficit, helps the environment and keeps the government fiscally honest and accountable."

I shouldn’t need to point out the ridiculousness in that statement.

For a more nuanced criticism of Sullivan’s piece read Ramesh Ponnuru’s piece. It won’t make the above quote from Sullivan any less ridiculous, though the following statement from Ponnuru’s piece is about as ridiculous as Sullivan’s.

"A related argument, however, is in my mind the strongest for a gas tax. On the assumption that OPEC is following a price-maximizing strategy, a higher gas tax would divert revenue from the House of Saud to the U.S. Treasury. In this sense, a higher gas tax would indeed further the war on terrorism. And if the tax increase were combined with a reduction in a more harmful tax, such as the payroll tax, the American economy would be helped rather than hurt."

Statists.

Update: Lileks has a go a Sullivan’s gas tax increase drum banging after first telling us about a Minnesota storm and Gnat.

Posted by on 04/17 at 05:05 PM