A Gas Tax for Guzzlers

Thomas L. Friedman, one of my four favorite NYT columnists, begged Obama to brave public opinion and institute a gas tax. It's needed, he argued, because Americans are idiots when it comes to historically based reasoning. No matter how many gas crises they endure, as soon as gas prices fall, they trade in their Hondas for Hummers. And conveniently forget that a few months before, they were taking the bus because they could no longer afford the gas to drive to work in their SUVs (or as a dear friend once christened them: 'the mommy cars of the apocalypse'). And never mind that the funds they're dumping at the tank are going to nations that fund Islamic terrorism.

But it's a recession. Or maybe the word that rhymes with 'recession' but starts with a different consonant. And drastically raising the price of something that is a basic necessity for most Americans is not going to be popular. (This is the one drawback of democracy--and is also why you need an FDR to get on the radio once a week and convince us to suck it up).

Friedman suggests breaking Americans in gently, raising the tax per gallon by $0.10/month.

But I have another idea. Most gas-efficient cars have smaller tanks. So how about a tax that increases, or kicks in, with the tenth gallon? Start out taxing the first 10 gallons at five cents, and every gallon after that at twenty cents. Then gradually increase the tax on the first 10 by five cents more each month, and the tax on every gallon after that by ten. That will double the motivation to buy and keep those fuel-efficient cars--both to save funds at the pump *and* to benefit from the tax break.