Americans just begging for a gas tax?

Friedman says yes; I don't see it. I suspect in his circles, such a move might be popular. Elitists sharing the pain and all that...

Not content to just contribute their own, they want to tell the rest of us how to spend our own hard-earned dollars.

President Bush’s greatest failure was not Iraq, Afghanistan or Katrina. It was his failure of imagination after 9/11 to mobilize the country to get behind a really big initiative for nation-building in America. I suggested a $1-a-gallon “Patriot Tax” on gasoline that could have simultaneously reduced our deficit, funded basic science research, diminished our dependence on oil imported from the very countries whose citizens carried out 9/11, strengthened the dollar, stimulated energy efficiency and renewable power and slowed climate change. It was the Texas oilman’s Nixon-to-China moment — and Bush blew it.

Had we done that on the morning of 9/12 — when gasoline averaged $1.66 a gallon — the majority of Americans would have signed on.
...
In the wake of this historic oil spill, the right policy — a bill to help end our addiction to oil — is also the right politics. The people are ahead of their politicians. So is the U.S. military. There are many conservatives who would embrace a carbon tax or gasoline tax if it was offset by a cut in payroll taxes or corporate taxes, so we could foster new jobs and clean air at the same time. If Republicans label Democrats “gas taxers” then Democrats should label them “Conservatives for OPEC” or “Friends of BP.” Shill, baby, shill.
...
Obama is not just our super-disaster-coordinator. “He is our leader,” noted Tim Shriver, the chairman of Special Olympics. “And being a leader means telling the rest of us what’s our job, what do we need to do to make this a transformative moment.”

Please don’t tell us that our role is just to hate BP or shop in Mississippi or wait for a commission to investigate. We know the problem, and Americans are ready to be enlisted for a solution. Of course we can’t eliminate oil exploration or dependence overnight, but can we finally start? Mr. President, your advisers are wrong: Americans are craving your leadership on this issue. Are you going to channel their good will into something that strengthens our country — “The Obama End to Oil Addiction Act” — or are you going squander your 9/11, too?

Nothing like exploiting a deadly situation to push your pet policies eh, and making promises to the rest of us: if only we force you to pay more to get to work, get your kids to activities, and throw more money at green-energy start-ups...

If only we were sure the money-throwing, anti-market policies that libs like Friedman and the Kennedy-Shrivers push would work. History tells us otherwise.

Why don't we just compromise here: wait and see how successful these radical new healthcare laws are at solving problems, say, before we begin undertaking any more money-transferring policies that will leave plenty of us poorer off for it?

Why punish workers and families at the pump for the failures of government and BP in the Gulf? Why cancel the summer family vacations, the road trips already, because who can afford to fly anymore? $1/gallon on top of what we're paying already -- that adds up when you're talking real dollars, Tom.

Btw, what do you think the heating bill on this place is? Maybe we could craft a policy of tripling taxation over a modest square footage. A luxury tax to encourage people to stop wasting energy and live more efficiently. Where's the leadership on that?

Now I'm not sure if Mr. Friedman and his family are contributing to terrorism or helping build any "radical" mosques by living in this manner; not sure how many sea otters and endangered turtles he's helped eliminate by flying all over the world every time he gets a tip there's news happening he needs to be there to cover...

In fact, come to think of it, I'm not sure how many miles Mr. Friedman actually puts on his own personal car -- uncomped. I suspect with all that flying and telecommuting Tom does, Juan working three jobs might just be more taxed by the additional $1 per gallon at the pump than Mr. Friedman, with all his millions crying out to be put to better use helping the country end its addictions.

No, I don't hear anyone out here begging the president to lead us into higher taxes. For the most part, I think we're all done believing that throwing "extra" money at a problem helps to fix anything, and that mandating lifestyle changes via punitive means is the answer.

I wonder how long it will take though, for that message to get through though to New York Times columnists who choose to live large and isolated. Just please don't tell me that's a heated pool out back ... what a waste!



ADDED: Btw, this line? "...or are you going squander your 9/11, too?" Very Rahm Emanuel-ish.

Never let a good tragedy -- 11 deaths too! -- go to waste when it's just ripe for exploitation: If you can't shoehorn in your preferred policies now, or in troubling times, when can you?

(I think our legislators and Boomer pundits and political advisers just might have learned the wrong lessons from the first Kennedy assassination and the subsequent passage of the Civil Rights bill.)