Quote:
Originally Posted by vcs2600
In 1993, they fought like hell to get the gas tax increased by 4 measly cents. And this is when gas was back at $1.50 a gallon.
"Increase the gas tax" is politically impossible. It is the equivalent of saying "Do nothing".
|
Yes, - mostly.
Arbitrarily drawing a line in time, we blew it in the 1957 - 1968 timeframe on everything concerning and related to energy policy and transportation.
At this point and most likely for the next 10 -12 years minimum, adding a tax of a dollar or two or three per gallon is not only politically unacceptable - it would destroy the economy - such as it is - including the transportation sector.
If for some reason pump prices dropped back down to 2.50$ or so you could try it - with the right leadership.
Right now for that time period it would be better to just efficiently 're' co ordinate all the soon to be mandatory regulations concerning safety, emissions, and yes fuel economy - and energy programs.
Unless something changes for the better we can look forward to a bunch of potential buyers being basically buried in their trade ins for the next 10 - 15 years - in regards to new vehicles that are going to cost increase real quick.
Basically its at least another 4-5 years before the product line ups catch up to 4.00/4.00$ plus fuel prices.
Maybe we will in fact require a tax credit program or similar for new vehicle purchases - another can of worms.
Either that or an American sized Kei auto program centered around 1000 -1200 cc sized engines.