I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to accept a 25¢ tax on gasoline if all the tolls on our highways, bridges and tunnels were shut down. Tolls do not unduly affect tourists and weekend drivers as much as the daily working stiff wanting a better route to work — and might just get rid of that SUV unless used to pool. Toll gates not only tie up traffic but just imagine putting together all the idling consumption waiting to pay, not to mention the fumes in the air. All the jobs lost will be put to better use cleaning up the environment. I’m also in favor of the working stiff’s right to deduct on his/her income tax this surtax beyond 10,000 miles @ 25 mpg commuting to work. Small businesses reliant on service delivery will continue to deduct these expenses. There should also be a tax reduction on diesel fuel to keep the cost of tractor-trailers transporting goods to the market.
I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to accept a 30¢ tax increase on cars requiring premium gasoline — I’m one of them — to diminish the need to purchase greater horsepower, let alone help the environment. I’m also in favor of the government investigating the wide price differentials in graded gasoline. The government should also end the countless variables in environmental additives and make the best additive for congested states to fit all states. California’s objection, notwithstanding.
I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to accept a national directive for the colder zones — easy for me to say, living in Florida — that all be required to wear a Jimmy Carter cardigan sweater when at home and keep the thermostat on 65º during the winter. Floridians and others residing in warm states should keep their air-conditioners on 78º. Business buildings should return to the 70s by limit their energy use — this would entail the perennial argument over whether computers should be left on eternally or off after hours. By the way, then motorists didn’t suffer under the 55 mph speed limit.
I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up with the tax cuts for the rich; if we must live with them, then the rich should not get further breaks in unearned income unless they can prove they are investing in corporations that stay home and produce jobs, and in research and production designed to improve the environment and infrastructure.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: April 6, 2004.