New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman's (Gas) Taxing Obsession
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Over the last decade, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has written on the costs of the Iraq war, the federal deficit, the threat of global warming, and the uprisings in the Arab world. In Friedman’s view, all these problems have one simple solution: A $1-a-gallon hike in the gas tax.
In his Wednesday column, “If Not Now, When?” Friedman pushed the tax as having some tenuous connection to pushing democratic values in the Middle East:
No one is rooting harder for the democracy movements in the Arab world to succeed than I am. But even if things go well, this will be a long and rocky road. The smart thing for us to do right now is to impose a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax, to be phased in at 5 cents a month beginning in 2012, with all the money going to pay down the deficit. Legislating a higher energy price today that takes effect in the future, notes the Princeton economist Alan Blinder, would trigger a shift in buying and investment well before the tax kicks in. With one little gasoline tax, we can make ourselves more economically and strategically secure, help sell more Chevy Volts and free ourselves to openly push for democratic values in the Middle East without worrying anymore that it will harm our oil interests. Yes, it will mean higher gas prices, but prices are going up anyway, folks. Let’s capture some it for ourselves.
The gas tax can also pay down the national deficit. From Friedman’s September 20, 2009 column, “Real Men Tax Gas," which tried to portray the tax as the macho thing to do:
According to the energy economist Phil Verleger, a $1 tax on gasoline and diesel fuel would raise about $140 billion a year. If I had that money, I’d devote 45 cents of each dollar to pay down the deficit and satisfy the debt hawks, 45 cents to pay for new health care and 10 cents to cushion the burden of such a tax on the poor and on those who need to drive long distances.
It can save the planet. From Friedman’s June 3, 2007 column, “Our Green Bubble.”
Yes, it is helpful that Mr. Bush expressed a desire last week to work with other nations to limit greenhouse gases. His bully pulpit matters. But no one will -- or should -- take him seriously unless his government first leads by example. What would that look like? It has to start with a clear, long-term price signal. That is, a carbon tax or gasoline tax -- or a cap and trade system with a binding national ceiling on carbon dioxide emissions -- which would set a price for dumping carbon into the atmosphere or driving a gas-guzzling car.
It can end our oil addiction. From Friedman’s March 1, 2006 column, “Who’s Afraid of a Gas Tax?”
My gut told me this was the case, but it's great to see it confirmed by the latest New York Times/CBS News poll: Americans not only know that our oil addiction is really bad for us, but they would be willing to accept a gasoline tax if some leader would just frame the stakes for the country the right way....The only real solution is raising our gasoline tax, which is a paltry 18.4 cents a gallon and has not been increased since 1993.
It could even rebuild Iraq. From Friedman’s October 5, 2003 column “The Real Patriot Act.”
There's all sorts of talk now about how to finance the $87 billion price tag for the reconstruction of Iraq. I say, let's make OPEC pay -- indirectly. Let's have a $1 a gallon gasoline tax and call it the ''Patriot Tax.'' We could use the revenue it would raise -- about $110 billion a year -- to finance the entire reconstruction of Iraq, with plenty left for other good works.
- Clay Waters's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Oil just crossed 100 BUCKS..
Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 2:37pm.
What's the stock market doing?
Obama waves his hands and deems the Gulf a wasteland, TAX
You Didn't Build That.
Is Friedman really this stupid?
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 2:40pm.
Does this idiot not understand that one of the things that contributed to the depth of our recession was $4/gal at the pumps a couple of years ago?
Is this moron oblivious to what is currently transpiring in the ME, which already has gas prices at $4/gal in areas of California?
What does this goober think is going to happen to many low income Americans if they are forced to pay far more at the pumps just to get back and forth to work, not to mention the increased prices (which are already going up) they are going to encounter buying food and basic necessities for their families?
Does this ignoramus not think Obama is destroying our economy fast enough, and wants to destroy it even faster?
Does this imbecile even have to buy gasoline?
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
According to wikipedia
Submitted by Seashell on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 2:56pm.
According to wikipedia Friedman's net worth is 25 million. If he does buy gas I'm sure it makes no-nevermind to him what the cost of it is.
Probably doesn't own a car
Submitted by Bluegill on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 5:10pm.
or know how to drive one
Your the first:
Submitted by Rycher660 on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 8:34pm.
person I've heard, to mention the damage that the $4 dollar+ a gallon did to this country. How many companies went out of business because of it? How many people lost their jobs because of it?
heard a better idea
Submitted by OuttaMyWay on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 8:35pm.
Someone who was not freidman or krugman, had a similar, but much better idea.
$4 gas. The governement take would be subtracted from our taxes. So i buy $4 for 2.5 in gas, then i pay 1.5*17 gallons in tax. The law would have it remove it from what is owed as a population. (i think it should be a card like speedyrewards where they add the credit directly.)
Less consumption, reduce the tax, and you know the governement will do EVERYTHING it can to keep the price of sweet, sweet crude :) as low as possible to maximize their take.
(i agree dave that it is hard to run our business at that much expense, so maybe a corporate card also)
Why...
Submitted by SamC on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 9:31pm.
"What does this goober think is going to happen to many low income Americans if they are forced to pay far more at the pumps just to get back and forth to work..."
Why, we'll just run out and buy a couple of them brand new Chevy Volts from Government Motors! Low income folks ALWAYS have an emergency new car fund!!
Maybe.....we should drill our
Submitted by Chance_85202 on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 2:44pm.
Maybe.....we should drill our own oil....use our own natural gas and coal reserves and eliminate our need for foreign oil. We could employ thousands, lower our cost and stop sendings billions overseas to people that don't like us.
Well Chance
Submitted by Seashell on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 2:49pm.
that just makes to much sense for libs like Friedman to understand.
Huh?
Submitted by Unsane on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 12:43am.
Since when did the Canadians not like us? And since when are they overseas?
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Friedman wants to have his cake and eat it too...
Submitted by UltraC on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 2:54pm.
Everytime a gas tax hike is proposed by folks like Friedman, it's offered as a solution to bring in more revenue whilst simultaneously curbing what the same folks view as undesirable behavior-- In this case, driving a "gas-guzzler". But if we curb behavior, we curb gas sales, and we reduce tax revenue.
It doesn't seem to register with folks like Friedman that those of us who drive less fuel-efficient cars spend more money at the pump more frequently. The market already rewards fuel economy, and punishes waste. Methinks that a person who bought the less fuel-efficient vehicle acknowledged that disadvantage before buying, especially in the last couple of years, and regarded it as the trade-off for larger cargo-carrying capacity, better traction in inclement weather, and recreational versatility.
To a point...
Submitted by GW on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 4:08pm.
I'm trying to remember back to my economics class.
There's a concept called 'bread'. It refers to a necessity that people will always pay for regardless of the price because they NEED it. 300 years ago, that necessity was bread. Today, it's oil.
True, folks will carpool and drive less to a point, so behavior will change with higher gas prices. But I propose that behavior can only change a certain amount before it won't change any more. And at that point, costs will just have to get passed on to consumers. As an example, the last time gas prices jumped, a plumber friend of mine charged his customers a surcharge for the gas it took to get to them if they lived far out of town.
That's what I think anyway. Do you think my idea here has any merit?
Tough to gauge unforseen effects...
Submitted by UltraC on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 11:27pm.
It's been a number of years since my economics class too, GW, but I see some merit to your argument, but it's tough to gauge the unforseen effects. Your example highlights this: The plumber passed the extra expense to the customer. I saw the same thing with the last significant gas price increase a couple of years ago: Sprinkler winterize service used to cost $75, went up to $80 and then to $85 as a result of the gas prices. I will cede the point that unless gas prices jump out of the range of the average person's ability to purchase, a new short-term equilibrium will be reached. But long-term? People will move closer to their jobs, closer to cities, and over time demand will drop. But in the meantime, those occupations that rely on transportation will increase their prices, triggering an across-the-board increase in the price of goods and services. That's inflation, and it ultimately results in less buying power for the revenue the government does collect.
Reality
Submitted by dan iroticiv on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 2:58pm.
I have to admit I am an advocate of adding a $1 tax to gasoline especially when we all know it is going up. My logic is this, if you add a $1 tax, demand goes down, and the price of the commodity goes down, if you don't add the $1, the prices go up at least a $1 anyway, and the money goes to the middle east instead of here.
Stupidity
Submitted by Unsane on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 12:48am.
Really? We import ALL of our oil from the Middle East?
Let's put aside your call for autarky for a minute. If you look at a globe, you will notice that the Middle East is pretty freaking far from the United States. This is why the United States gets about 15% of our oil from there, tops.
The Canadians by far supply us wil more oil than the Middle East does. So does Mexico. They are closer.
Your logic sucks. Adding a $1 a gallon tax to gasoline as a way to decrease demand and increase supply? Great. You still are forgetting one incredibly nasty fact: how many of our goods and services are transported? You know, like FOOD? Guess what? You impose this, the price of virtually everything that has to be transported goes way way up.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
reality
Submitted by rich7292 on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 3:05pm.
dan victori you are a complete moron and obviously a liberal. Go to sites where brainless idiots with no intelligent ideas hang out. Then no one has to listen to your stupidity. Guess what moron. The demand will not go down. Our economy depends on oil. Ever notice how when gas prices sky rocket inflation goes into overdrive. Oh why bother. You don't have the intelligence to figure something like that out. Just like Freidman you don't have a clue.
Yep
Submitted by Rukus on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 3:47pm.
I got a better idea: DRILL! DRILL! DRILL! There, problem solved.
Open Minded
Submitted by dan iroticiv on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 4:50pm.
Wow! you are just as the guilty as the lefties on MSNBC. If you don't like an idea, call them a moron. You are no better than Chris Mathews, or the rest of the intellectual elites. When gas hits $5 per gallon demand will go down, and guess where that extra $2 per gallon is going. I am an old school free market conservative who understands supply and demand a bit more than you. My thought and it is something I was throwing out for debate is that since it is going up anyway, why not beat it to the punch and keep the money here. The money can be given back as a gas rebate from the Feds.
But if...
Submitted by Rycher660 on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 7:54pm.
We are buying the gas from the Middle East ... aren't we paying thier price? So, wouldn't a gas tax only add to whatever we have to pay them?
I'm clling intellectual dishonesty right here and now
Submitted by Unsane on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 12:51am.
You can't be an old-school free market conservative when you whine about how much of our money is going someplace else (and you are horribly ill informed if you think we import all of our oil from the Middle East). Not to mention your call for a tax hike.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
I am an old school free market conservative
Submitted by ckc1227 on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 5:26am.
"I am an old school free market conservative.."
Who has clearly abandoned old school conservatism and embraced old school liberalism.
Sigh. Don't you understand?
Submitted by mdgiles on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 3:14pm.
Sigh. Don't you understand? Higher gas prices will get all those damn peasants off the roads, leaving them less crowded for our betters like Lord Friedman. When are you damn people going to learn your place!
Sick freak
Submitted by Unsane on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 12:52am.
Save it, sick freak.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Uns, I think he was kidding
Submitted by Blonde on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 10:31am.
That sure sounded like tongue firmly emplanted in cheek to moi.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Another supporter of the indefensible
Submitted by Unsane on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:43am.
mdgiles, like Incestmo and sicksnark, endorses incest. I haven't forgotten that.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
While the administration is ignoring a court order
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 3:31pm.
to allow drilling in the Gulf to re-start and to approve those applications that meet the requirements. Freidman is arguing that we should tax the consumption of one of oil's primary products that we have to import more of because of the actions of this administration?
We could reduce our oil imports by 20% over the next couple of years if the govwernment allowed us to. They apparently think that it is better to send as much of our dollars over to Saudi Arabia than it is to generate jobs here in this country with our unemployment at around 16% (Dept. of Labor statistics not withstanding).
And on top of all that lunacy, he argues that it will help sell more Chevy Volts, which is probably the worst electric car (it's really a hybrid that they are lying about) that you cab buy in the market today. It almost seems as though he is pushing for the governemnt to help out it's business partner, GM and the UAW to push thier substandard low quality products on the unsuspecting masses.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
It's not just oil production
Submitted by jon_torlin on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 3:47pm.
Doing our own oil production isn't the only problem we are facing with the rising cost of gas, it's the refineries. This country hasn't built a new gas refinery in over 30 years and the ones that we have have been repurposed into making ethanol and 40+ blends of gasoline depending on the state and time of year.(last I heard it was something like 40-44 blends) Some refineries were closed down due to disrepair states and not allowed to fix them or just closed by executive orders or the EPA. Any new one that gets planned is struck down by activist court judges on behalf of environmentalist wackos, even if it were placed in some of the most inhospitable places that people or even bugs and animals would live. So we're stuck with importing gas from overseas at times!
I have a friend whose son-in-law works for BP and he said there are places at refineries and etc that have tanks of oil sitting on train tracks that have been sitting there for years before they get refined.
The last time gas prices were going out of sight was just after Rita or one of those hurricanes that struck near Houston/Louisiana, they reduced the gas blends to six blends for a few weeks and that helped. Gas prices are looking to get higher than that time, don't count on this dictatorship to do the same thing.
-Jon
Kick in a 1 dollar tax on gas
Submitted by jkwtrading on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 4:13pm.
Kick in a 1 dollar tax on gas and those uprisings he sees all over the world will be here.
They might even come to a neighborhood he lives in..
consider this jon*
Submitted by cajun2 on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 4:14pm.
Even if, if , if Obama decides to lift his imaginary moratorium, it would take years to begin working on "new" rigs. This study by Mark Kaiser is a few years old but gives a good breakdown of the work and money it takes to drill a new well from permit to production. It is estimated that it takes, depending on the geography, 3-5 yrs to establish a new drilling operation.
Lets add the thousands of pages of new rules and regulations, since 2007 study, that have been implemented by this administration and you begin to see why oil companies are moving rigs to other parts of the world which I believe is all a co-ordinated effort for a "global economy" not an American free market enterprise.
My brother pilots moveable rigs and is now near Brazil. He has been working non stop since last fall and says he will have work thru the summer because Obama's administration are defying the federal courts and continue to put obstacles in the way of oil companies doing business. These companies have no choice but to move operations to more "free market friendly" soverignties.This leaves no doubts that the price of oil will continue to rise even if we allow the issuance of new permits due to the time it takes to develope a new driling operation. The longer Obama can successfully delay new drilling permits, his goal of dwindling oil supply will be achieved. I find all this very interestingly timed with the desruptions and violence in the middle east. Idiot trolls can spin their lies however they wish, the truth is staring us in the face.
don't doubt it a bit
Submitted by jon_torlin on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 5:05pm.
I don't doubt it a bit, I know those things are cost intensive when it comes to setting up before they actually start producing.
The funny thing is we're in a similar situation as Iran(better than theirs, but similar) in that they have all the oil they can get to, but they have like just one gas refinery. So they can't produce a whole lot of gas.
That's what our problem is right now, what with the gas needs in this country, while we don't have a true shortage, we don't have a whole lot to work with in terms of the refineries plus the stupid ethanol and 40+ blends. That's part of what's driving the cost of gas to 4 bucks and beyond. It's not just the lack of oil production even though I know it plays a large part in it.
It's a utterly ridiculous situation that we do not even NEED to be in.
-Jon
Liberals just wave their magic "Tax Increase" wand,
Submitted by ThisnThat on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 4:43pm.
and all problems are solved by increased revenue. Right?
How about social security? From 1937 to 2010, the tax has increased at a 7.57% annual rate -- double the rate of inflation. And is social security healthy? Hell no.
Ok, how about medicare instead? From 1966 to 1993 (the last year of the wage cap on medicare), the maximum tax increased at a 17.2% annual rate, triple the inflation over that period. There has been no wage cap since 1994. Is medicare in good shape? Hell no.
{Taken together, and including the employer's contrabutions, these two taxes alone consume 14.3% of an average person's income. Imagine if we instead put that aside in a 401K for 40 years!}
So now we have a proposal to increase the gas tax. Submitted by a man who knows nothing about history. Approved and published in a newspaper that does know about history, but is refusing to acknowledge said history in order to push an agenda. The NYT is nothing but a yellow rag, unfit to line bird cages or even wrap fish heads.
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
Does Government Motors want to sell cars?
Submitted by Red Jeep on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 5:33pm.
If they do they better keep the cost of gas low. (...and , hint, hint, $5 gal/gas ain't gonna sell $41,000 electric Volts, dolts.)
Wow...
Submitted by retrocon on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 5:41pm.
I find myself not commenting nearly as much lately, and this story made me realize why... the left, while always deranged, always uninformed, always illogical, and liberalism itself always being a mental illness with a cult following, well, lately, they have just been exhibiting extreme stupidity.
"Solve the problem with social engineering through taxation."
That's almost as ignorant as "Saving government jobs is the same as saving private sector jobs," coming out of the pundits discussing Wisconsin.
Are liberals REALLY this stupid? Brainwashed? do they think the average American is this stupid? or are the leftists just plain evil? I'm really starting to lean toward "stupid."
In any case, it becomes increasingly difficult to comment on stupidity. I'm out of words to describe the idiocracy that is the current government.
How long can it possibly be an excuse?
Submitted by Ashrak on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 6:04pm.
I have been hearing for decades now that it will take 5 to 10 years to get oil if we strated drilling for it now. I have been told this is why that isn't a solution. While that might be true, much of the market is speculation based. Just making the decision to actually do it will have a tremendously positive affect- for We The People.
Well, it is the solution and it's past time we put the drill heads in the ground, now. Here. Everywhere. Like Charlie Daniels said, on the White House lawn, if need be.
It is time to drop the bottom out of the oil market and if OPEC nation's don't like it - TOUGH. I am sick of this form of foreign aid even more than the other forms we send abroad. It just has to stop and it has to stop now.
Drill baby, drill.
Start 200 oil wells in the U. S. tomorrow and you will have...
Submitted by Red Jeep on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 6:15pm.
...$2 gal/gas next week.
All most of the problem Arab countries have for wealth is oil. No oil sales, they go back to being camel jockeys for tourists. Now which would you rather be a rich oil sheik or camel jockey? If we start drilling they will start dropping the price on oil so it's less expensive to use theirs than to drill here.
Funny how TAX..is the answer to all liberal problems
Submitted by redright88 on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 6:23pm.
The bigger...the better
What's wrong asking people who have made it to give more?
Submitted by Red Jeep on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 6:31pm.
And if that means tax increases so people give more, fine. Thus was the logic of Mika on Morning Joe this AM.
Giving more = higher taxes
So give more Brother and Sistas to the Church of Liberalism, I'm beggin' ya, and so is Sista Mika.
Liberals have all sorts of
Submitted by jdhawk on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 6:49pm.
Liberals have all sorts of concoctions to fix the deficit, healtcare, intra city blight, male pattern baldness, erectile dysfunction, acne, cankles, flat chested women, etc. In every single case, regardless of the problem at hand, more taxes are ALWAYS their answer.
Nevertheless, whether its duhbama, "fried brain" Friedman or "unemployment payments are the best stimulus" Pelosi proposing the solution, the problem always remains unsolved, in fact, gets worse, because socialists go right back to the public trough and add more and more and more spending.
With socialists in charge you can NEVER out tax their ability to spend. It is impossible. It is never happened in the history of socialism.
Mrs. Thatcher was right, "socialism works until it runs out of other people's money."
WE'LL, WE HAVE RUN OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY - OURS
fried brain - go to hell . . .
Flat tax to the rsscue
Submitted by professorjwn on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 8:43pm.
Instead of 1$ a gallon tax on Gas, why not a 1)% tax on everything, and get rid of the IRS.
this means "pay as you go"....more you buy, the more you pay.
rich pay more as they buy me. btw - this works with Jet fuel too.
Bad idea
Submitted by Unsane on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 12:54am.
Screw that. 17% income tax on everyone, and you have an IRS of 100 harmless bean counters.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Flat N All That by Matt Taibbi
Submitted by Red Jeep on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 8:55pm.
"...along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-stached resident of a positively obscene 11,400 square foot suburban Maryland mega-monstro-mansion and husband to the heir of one of the largest shopping-mall chains in the world, reinventing himself as an oracle of anti-consumerist conservationism. " http://www.nypress.com/article-19271-flat-n-all-that.html
Picture of Friedman's home: http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/07/24/1044fd39d6904b807190305cac30b608.jpg
Red Jeep
Submitted by Blonde on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 10:37am.
That link is amazing.
Where to start? Well....just read the link. Thank you, thank you. I'll never be able to see his name again without thinking about it.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Gas Tax?
Submitted by IrateNate on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 9:38pm.
Apparently, Friedman has forgetten what happened in 2008, when gas were nearing $4 a gallon. I wonder if he realizes that if people spend more for gas, they have less to spend on everything else.
I wonder how a $1 tax on a copy of the NYT would affect their sales?
The Indonesian Imbecile has struck out
Submitted by daveinboca on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 2:57am.
The silly-boy infesting the Oval Office has failed epically to do anything about the deficit, all the while mouthing BS about shovel-ready projects while he spends over HALF of the $800 billion in stimulus on saving public service union jobs so the union members, in turn, pay their dues which in turn go toward electing Demonrat candidates.
Friedman is a one-trick pony and overlooks every other way. I agree with Red Jeep that the cure for the gas shortage is to hook up a pipeline to Tom's most productive nether orifice.
"...along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-stached resident of a positively obscene 11,400 square foot suburban Maryland mega-monstro-mansion and husband to the heir of one of the largest shopping-mall chains in the world, reinventing himself as an oracle of anti-consumerist conservationism. " http://www.nypress.com/article-19271-flat-n-all-that.html