1. A meaningful tax on oil. As long as we are abjectly dependent on oil from the Middle East (or anywhere abroad), we will always face the accusation that we are acting to protect Ford Excursions and GM Hummers rather than any other national or international interest we may claim.
Some people say it will destroy our economy. No it wont. Instead of shipping dollars abroad on something we use once(to be recycled as bank deposits, or invested in William Simons business ventures), well spend them on products and services that we create within our economy.
It should be phased in, over a period of several years. It could be passed now, and not take effect for two years, and we would be able to begin the process of planning for higher energy costs.
I know this has been a political non-starter for twenty years, but since we’re about to go to war, maybe we could sack up and at least start discussing the issue?
Theres more detail, but Ill lay it out in the next day or so, along with a detailed talk about 3rd party gun registries and how they actually might work.
2. Bill Simons withdrawal from the California Governors race. Hes going to get spanked (I even have a bet on this), and right now the best thing he could do would be to withdraw, let Riordan or someone else embarrass Davis in the election and destroy Davis plans to run for President. A last-minute campaign à la New Jersey might actually rescue this from becoming one of the worst electoral campaigns of the year.
Oh world peace and domestic tranquility would be nice, too
Date: 10/17/2002 00:00:00 AM
Not to mention that gasoline taxes, like all sales taxes, are highly regressive.A more politically palatable first step would be to class SUVs as cars and not as trucks (and given that so many of them nowadays are built on car chassis anyway) and force them to abide by cars’ fuel mileage requirements.
Date: 10/17/2002 00:00:00 AM
Domestic tranquility would put to many people out of work…self defeating in a way.
The regressive nature of energy and sales taxes is usually dealt with by an income-based tax credit, not a big deal at all (can even begin to be the cornerstone of a negative income tax – one of Nixon’s more interesting proposals).
Simply moving SUV’s into fleet mileage won’t begin to change out consumption levels significantly, and hence won’t reduce our vulnerability to Middle Eastern threat.
A.L.