One of the mistakes that George Bush the Younger made after 9/11 was that he didn’t ask the people to sacrifice to destroy the Taliban and Osama Ben Ladin. No war bonds, no draft, tax increase and subsequently no support for finishing the war.
Now we are in a war against Russian aggression and Senator Mark Kelly among others has introduced legislation to waive the Federal gasoline tax for six months. This is exactly the wrong action. Kelly and others are misreading the American peoples willingness to sacrifice and sending the wrong signal to Putin. I propose instead that we immediately increase the tax on gasoline by $1.00. The proceeds can go to refugee relief and building the military.
The slogan could be “Drive Less for Democracy.”
The Ukraine’s heroic fight has shown us is that you are much stronger if you are willing to make joint sacrifices and don’t even think about giving up.
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If you want to see poor people really suffer– then increase the gas tax– For working poor who can barely afford to commute to work it may make it almost impossible to get to work — some of them may spend all their earnings on gas- How about more gas tax and free public transportation.
Poor Mya wont even be able to afford to get in her pickup truck with her grocery carts to grace your front door.. And you and I wont suffer (or even sacrifice anything) because we can afford more expensive gas.. How about a surtax on the top 1% to fund this war– or maybe a sur tax on luxury cars– or how about this– all autos with a value of over $50,000 are banned from driving anywhere, because the people who drive these expensive cars are the ones who have the greatest access to the politicians who can do something about this war
Larry
Would the poor people be better off if Putin was in charge. We need to signal that we are ready to fight. I do like the idea of free public transit. This is not the time to be fair it is the time to be stalwart.
Perhaps if the tax on gas went up a dollar people would drive less and the price of gas would fall.
With the rise in gas prices goes an increased price for transportation of all goods and services, You and I can afford higher prices in the grocery store and everywhere else– but I am guessing there are employees in your wonderful condo bldg that cant– I agree with driving less but there has to be a way to accomplish that with out putting such a burden on the poor
and No the poor people would NOT be better off if Putin were in charge but there must be a better way– how about if we increase the price of gas and you and I and everyone in your condo complex give out gas discount cards to everyone who earns less than $20,000 a year as long as they are using it to drive to and from work
Anonymous
Thanks for thinking this thru.
The point of my proposal is to make everyone feel the impact of the economic war we are fighting with Russia. Fuel prices have nearly doubled in the last year and people have adjusted. The legislation should have an accommodation for the poor but it is meant to make us all hurt.
Simon