Great Idea. i think gas should be $5 a gallon. Driving is a luxury in pretty much every other country, it should be here too. Make people who can afford it pay for it, people who can't, make them use public transportation. We'll not only reduce our fuel consumption by i don't know, 50%, and thus reducing the amount of money we throw to terrorists and countries that hate us.

you have to give low income people some kind of tax credit for their commuting needs. otherwise, you just wind up increasing the great divide.

No, you increase the gas tax incrementally and QUICKLY copy Tokyo's transit system in EVERY major US city.

And compute the tax right at the pump based on scanning the vehicle ID, cars built for FE (Prius,etc.), low tax, gas guzzler's (RX450h, Ford EcoBoost...!) HIGH tax

Employers in Japan provide employees with transit passes.

$4 gas almost destroyed the car industry. They won't go in that direction again.
Funny how oil futures pricing has stabilized--and so have gas prices. Something happened there that isn't being talked about. Further, nobody in Washington has the balls to raise or restore any kind of taxes in an election year.

I'm not optimistic about the future, with a reactionary streak running through this country (including the media), a weak President and a government paralyzed by special interests.

We are the real impediment in the world to carbon control. The Chinese already are putting together a long term carbon reduction plan. We'll never get one with the current politics and the profit driven media, even though the majority are probably in favor.

But a phased-in, pre-planned and pre-announced incremental gas tax would give EVERYONE time to react. Also, we could forgo CAFE enforcement.

you can't compare the u.s. to japan, there are millions of poor people commuting outside of cities where mass transit will never be available.

don't let chinese propaganda fool you. they will do whatever is best for them.

here's an idea of how to increase the average fuel economy of every car in the US: get rid of GM, Chrysler, and Ford. Those three have all the guzzlers lol.

A staged flat tax per gallon of the true cost of the gasoline will allow people to react with proper behavior. A huge tax like the one they have in Europe will only get diverted as pork to somebodies pet project. We need to cover the cost of roads, polution, and new tech research, strategic reserve, in the gas tax. Long comutes subsidiesed by cheaper than market gas just distorts the economy and makes poor choices.

Taxing dosen't make people stop using something!

Example Taxing Cigarette's has got people to not start smoking?

I seriously thought when Cigarette's reached $1.00 a pack people would stop!
Now what is it? $5.00 and people are still "Starting" to smoke...

Raising taxes just gives more money to the government....

And mass Transit? Sorry but that's a joke! Our mass Transit is Very Inefficient here in Portland. When we had snow two years ago, They Said RIDE mass Transit.. People did, (A small ammount) and it overloaded the system The average wait for a bus that was on a 20min schedule was 1.5hrs.

After a day of asking people to ride mass transit, they said please don't it's over loaded (Even with the small increase) and just stay home...

When I worked at Intel, they gave Free Bus passes I thought GREAT! I figured out my 18min drive would take 1.5hrs each way to get to and from work. (And that's not counting WAIT time for the bus.)

In addition our work Ethics Don't match bus schedules. When I worked at Intel I had to be at 4 different campuses each reaching them in less than 10min travel time.. Bus=Fail
Even the "Company Bus" it was a 1hr trip...

Raising taxes is just stupid..
Think of part of economy that is based on low gas prices?

Recreational: Boats, MotorHomes, Motorcycles, Car Racing... All those industries would be HIT by higher taxes and people couldn't afford to do those, plus the cost of FOOD and services going up! Stupid Stupid Stupid....

I just think force cars to get 45MPG and in ten years they need to get 55MPG in another ten 65MPG....

Russ

U.S. Smoking Rate Still Coming Down

Sure but why should the government stop people from smoking? Numbers have declined. You are no longer forced to breath smoke at work. The taxes can pay for the increased public health cost of smokers. I don't think I was aware of ciggarettes at $1 a pack. What year was that? I know people would love it if they were only $5 in NYC. I don't really know the appropriate level here, but taxes are much better than making them illegal.

How about covering the costs associated with gasoline? We are paying in income taxes or deficits to make gasoline cheaper than a market price.

I can't help you there. Mass transit can work some places and doesn't work others. Making gasoline cost appropriate amounts will allow people to make appropriate choices about driving less, getting more efficient vehicles, or substituting phev or evs for gas vehicles.

By US standards, I think Portland has a good mass transit system. Please note that I said by US standards.

When gas was going toward 5 bucks a gal?
That helped the economy?
Trust me we have enough worries with the health care tax coming up we don't need MORE taxes...

wow. Did you think taxing cigarettes would stop people from smoking? I don't want to stop using gas or stop others. It would be nice if we used less and could transition though.

Life's not fair. The poor argument seems really old. I'm friends with some of the poor. Raising the tax $0.25 a gallon a year doesn't really hurt that much. I know people that do take mass transit to work, ride bikes, etc. The poor argument really doesn't hold up. They might not be able to drive a prius, but they sure don't need an SUV. I think you need to attack the other folks that propose $5 gas tax. Do you think it helps subsidizing cars and gas with income tax instead of gas taxes? It makes no sense.

How many minimum wage employees make a living wage and commute long distances to work in cars with bad milage? I guaranty they are on food stamps and looking for another job already.

Gas taxes are $0.35 to $0.60. If you just put the Iraq war on gas taxes for 10 years that would be $0.54 a gallon. We aren't paying for the highways, polution abatement, corporate welfare to the oil companies, and car companies with current tax levels. Its coming from the general fund. Instead we have cheaper than market gas that encourages consumption.

Oh ya, tell the poor to look for another job, that solves everything LOL

I think the gas tax should b raised. businesses that use a lot of gas such as mass transit the trucking industry and so on to get a partial exemption..
but change only comes with great pain. For these changes happen We need funding. It makes little sense To initiate a major shift in ttransportation with funding from another source. Removing from 1 area to apply to another make sense.

Priusman: Mass Transit will flourish if more people use it. When gas is expensive, more people will cease to use it and rely on cheaper means of transport. Look at, i don't know, every other country out there? Look at the european countries. Look at Japan...Look at Singapore.

And yes, studies have shown that higher cigarette taxes reduce the amount of cigarettes sold...

What health care tax? its funny how you say poor people will be affected by this gas tax. If you care about poor people, don't you think they should get health care they can afford? you know, like the rest of the civilized world does it?

If gas goes from what it is now to $5 a gallon, as a prius driver, you'll only pay $800 or so more a year. That is not much. If you can't afford that: don't drive. That's the point of these gas taxes, to encourage more fuel efficient cars and get idiots who drive 10mpg hummers of the road.