NY Times Columnist Tom Friedman Calls for Tax to Keep Gas at $4 a Gallon
On Sunday's Face the Nation, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman denounced the proposed White House plan to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to curb rising gas prices: "That would rank in my top five worst ideas of 2011 so far....one thing we should finally be doing is using this opportunity to have a credible energy policy that begins to reduce our addiction to oil."
Friedman's idea of "credible energy policy" was to force Americans to continue to pay higher gas prices: "Gasoline is almost $4 a gallon. We know that's a red line where people really start to change their behavior. At a minimum, I'd be talking about a tax that basically says we're going to keep it at $4. If it goes below we'll true it up, if it goes above that we're not going to touch it."
As TimesWatch's Clay Waters earlier reported on NewsBusters, for years Friedman has been obsessed with the idea of implementing higher gas taxes. In his most recent call for such a tax in a February 23 column entitled "If Not Now, When?," Friedman proposed: "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."
On Sunday, he echoed that column and generously suggested that his economically damaging proposal be slightly delayed: "Maybe say we're not going to implement it until 2012. So you signal people it's going to be coming, you don't change the – you don't harm the economy today but you get people to change their behavior."
Friedman warned host Bob Schieffer of dire consequences if a tax was not implemented soon: "Bob, if we don't to that, going forward the difference between a good day and a bad day for America is how the 86-year-old king of Saudi Arabia basically manages this reform process....We're putting ourselves in the hands of probably the most frail, antiquated regime in the Middle East. They will be setting your gas price." Apparently it would be better if our own government gouged us at the pump.
Here is a full transcript of the March 6 exchange on Face the Nation:
10:50AM ET
BOB SCHIEFFER: Bill Daley, the White House chief of staff, said on Meet the Press this morning that one of the options now is to consider using oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve in order to bring down the price of gasoline in this country. Does that make sense to you?
THOMAS FRIEDMAN: That would rank in my top five worst ideas of 2011 so far. I think that there's one thing we should finally be doing is using this opportunity to have a credible energy policy that begins to reduce our addiction to oil.
Gasoline is almost $4 a gallon. We know that's a red line where people really start to change their behavior. At a minimum, I'd be talking about a tax that basically says we're going to keep it at $4. If it goes below we'll true it up, if it goes above that we're not going to touch it. Maybe say we're not going to implement it until 2012. So you signal people it's going to be coming, you don't change the – you don't harm the economy today but you get people to change their behavior.
Bob, if we don't to that, going forward the difference between a good day and a bad day for America is how the 86-year-old king of Saudi Arabia basically manages this reform process. That's where we're putting ourselves. We're putting ourselves in the hands of probably the most frail, antiquated regime in the Middle East. They will be setting your gas price.
— Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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Comments
Friedman doesn't worry about the economy because . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 11:43am.
. . . he married into money. He can afford gasoline at any price.
He's a Big Government fan who wants Washington to wield its tax saber to steer behavior.
This guy is the definition of a Statist.
Submitted by JLin on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:03pm.
We, the People, exist to serve the interests of the State and its loyal syncophants.... If that does not fly in the face of the founding principles of the Constitution, then nothing does. It was people like Krugman and Friedman that people left Europe to escape and fought a revolution to cast off.
The European royals were the Statists of their day. Their modern counterparts are the big government Socialists we are saddled with now.
Boy, for a supposedly oh
Submitted by Miss_Me_Yet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 11:47am.
Boy, for a supposedly oh so smart guy, Friedman is really just your ordinary run of the mill blitheing idiot.
Liberals ... we can't live with them, they couldn't survive without us ...
Typical elitist snob thought
Submitted by MightyMouth on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 11:47am.
Typical elitist snob thought process. Tax the poor and middle clase to further his own political agenda. You really think taxing gas is going to change the behavior of Hummer owners? The people in the ivory palaces are out of control!!!
I think that's a great idea.
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 11:47am.
In fact I hope they drive it to $5 a gallon. In so doing they all but guarantee that a stack of cow patties will beat BO in 2012. Good work!
On the other hand...
Submitted by misterbee241 on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 11:56am.
Then on the other hand we could just drill for our own oil.
He must have graduated from
Submitted by inquiringmind on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 11:55am.
He must have graduated from the same school as Krugman.
I friggin' hate these people.
Submitted by ant on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 11:55am.
I friggin' hate these people. So, we're back to the "oil addiction" theme, huh? Is that like shelter addiction, or food and clothing addiction?
Any minute now I'll expect Ed Schultz to attack Freidman for trying to destroy the middle class and the poor.......any minute now.........
We don't need foreign oil!
Submitted by notinstl on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:10pm.
We've got plenty...get out of the way and let us use it. And for the clowns that talk about what people in europe pay per gallon....LOOK AT A FRICKIN' MAP! They've got nowhere to go!
Europe Gas Prices....
Submitted by adamsmith on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 2:35pm.
Don't forget, they pay $11 a gallon because at least half is tax to support the Nanny State, which is dying anyway. You can't subsidize lazy.....
Au Contraire
Submitted by IrateNate on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 8:53pm.
Yes, you CAN subsidize lazy. We do it here, every day....only we use fancy words like "Compensation" or "Insurance" to pay people not to work.
Typical liberal*
Submitted by cajun2 on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:16pm.
They never think further than their immediate agenda and never consider consequences
Here's what an idiot Friedman is...
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:18pm.
Someone here posted this the last time Friedman babbled, and I saved it because it was so funny (sad) that an idiot like Friedman would have a platform for his idiocy...h/t to ???
When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman’s new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, was going to be a kind of environmentalist clarion call against American consumerism, I almost died laughing.
Beautiful, I thought. Just when you begin to lose faith in America’s ability to fall for absolutely anything—just when you begin to think we Americans as a race might finally outgrow the lovable credulousness that leads us to fork over our credit card numbers to every half-baked TV pitchman hawking a magic dick-enlarging pill, or a way to make millions on the Internet while sitting at home and pounding doughnuts— along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-stached resident of a positively obscene 114,000 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.
Where does a man who needs his own offshore drilling platform just to keep the east wing of his house heated get the balls to write a book chiding America for driving energy inefficient automobiles?
And so on....
In other words, Friedman fancies himself as Al Gore V.2.0. How sick is that?
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
dumber than a fifth grader
Submitted by MidAmerica on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:19pm.
How exactly is raising the cost of fuel and lowering peoples standard of living going to 'end our addiction to oil'?
By raising the cost of transportation, which raises the cost of everything, the newly impoverished consumers will not be rushing to showrooms to buy $40,000 electric toy cars.
We already went through this nonsense during the carter years. The resulting inflation wiped out the value of people's savings (retirees were especially hurt) and did nothing to change peoples driving habits. We have to go to work, school and shopping.
Go Green!!!? That's all unicorns and rainbows. There is no there there.
Addiction to Oil
Submitted by happi on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:24pm.
I hate that term - "Addiction to Oil". This is not 1962 where people just went out in the car for a drive on Sunday. I con't know anybody who drives around just for pleasure. If I'm addicted, it's to drive to work - no mass transit options out int he burbs. If I'm addicted to heating oil, it's to keep my house at 65 this past winter. Like other liberals/progressives/leftists, Friedman just wants to control what the rest of us do - drive us further along the road to serfdom.
Addiction indeed
Submitted by jon_torlin on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:40pm.
I'm addicted to living, which means we need the oil and everything else.
-Jon
Two questions: Why is using
Submitted by robert108 on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:35pm.
Two questions: Why is using the tax system to distribute resources better than allowing market forces to do it? Why is transferring wealth from the private sector to the govt sector(through taxation) going to benefit us in any way?
This is such BS!
Submitted by c5then on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:55pm.
Planet Earth is "addicted" to oil because it is the cheapest form of energy that we have. It takes the least amount of labor/money for the most BTUs or Jouls or whatever unit you want to use. Said another way, Oil is the most economically feasible energy source that currently exists. Sure in some specific small regions there may be others that beat it, but that is not scalable to a national or global level.
Until there is something that is cheaper or easier, any effort to artificially reduce our use of oil must necessarily raise the cost of energy and/or reduce the amount of economic activity.
That being said, there are other forms of energy that become economically feasible once oil reaches or exceeds a certain price per barrel. But unless that price is reached because of global market forces (not spikes due to regional uncertainties or speculative market "investors") it will always revert back to it's market level rendering those alternatives once again too expensive or difficult to be sustainable.
Reducing our dependance on oil as a goal in and of itself is useless. It must be taken with our global competitiveness and economic health to determine it's benefit. If we were to eliminate our use of oil, but as a result our energy costs become so high that business was so expensive that we seriously reduced our economic activity and standing against our competitors around the globe, that would be a terrible thing for this country.
A far better and more achievable goal would be to reduce or eliminate our dependance on imported oil. As any middle school student can see today, being dependant on any foreign country (whether freindly or not) for a strategic raw material is very risky and places you in a precarious position when political issues flare up.
Our energy policy should be to produce as much cheap energy ourselves in as environmentally sensative a way as possible. Notice that it is the production of energy that takes presedence not the environment as we have today. Currently and for 35 years the USa has had an energy policy that was targeted on reducing our economic activity and increasing our dependance on other nations with a byproduct of sending as much of our created wealth overseas as possible. This has to end.
A rising tide lifts all boats, but putting a hole in the biggest boat does not lift any of the others. By artificailly handicapping the USA all these liberal/socialists are doing is allowing other strong rising economies to have a greater influence aroung the globe. Economies like China and Russia who do not play by the same set of rules and are not concerned about a level playing field or fair play.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
I wonder if Tommy
Submitted by Lord-come-soon-... on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 12:59pm.
would like to send me a stipend every month to subsidize my gas purchases. I mean, that's a commie sounding thing to do, and he's a commie sounding kinda guy. I'm one of those "oil addicts" who commute 300 miles each week and pays his taxes and tries to feed his family as my energy costs skyrocket. If Tommy is such a champion of the downtrodden, he should start with me. Waiting with great anticipation............................
Gee
Submitted by rynofitz on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 1:26pm.
This guy is a moron. Since I'm not a rich elitist like him, will he pay for my gas or buy my new Volt? Sorry Tom, you wanna kill the middle class, dont'cha....typical Lib
Can this person cite the
Submitted by eolon on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 2:17pm.
Can this person cite the article of the Constitution which allows him to do this?
...that's what I thought.
Best Regards,
e
.::.
Constitution?
Submitted by Lord-come-soon-... on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 2:40pm.
What Constitution? Since when has Friedman, Obama, Pelosi, Soros, Olberdork, Reid, Krugman, etc. been interested in the Constitution? Never. Excellent post.
I think these people possess
Submitted by ant on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 3:10pm.
I think these people possess a missing page of the Constitution that noone else has seen. It's the page that says the Fed can use taxes to regulate behavior and choose outcomes, that it has a right to administer rules concerning your food choices, and how it's prepared, that it has the right to choose your mode of transportation for you and enact legislation to "nudge" you into making the correct choices. It has the right to use your money to fund the Countries enemies. They have the right to ignore the consent of the people and to ignore their main responsibility of ensuring the security of the Nation from all threats, foreign and domestic, or invading parasites and Reconquistas.
And, oh yeah. the First Lady is entitled to public funds and to enact regulations and restrictions using same, despite the fact that nobody voted for her. This missing document is in a safe place along with all of Obama's past records and accomplishments and Nancy Pelosi's IQ test results.
A more important conversation
Submitted by jdhawk on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 3:09pm.
A more important conversation is why the "watchdog" media isn't placing the blame of higher oil prices and gaoline squarely on this administration. They surely did when President Bush was in office and everything else that could or did go wrong.
What NB needs to do is not only report on what the socialist say and do, but what they don't say and do.
In regards to "news" about elevated gasoline prices, some say that the "watchdog" media hit President Bush versus duhbama on a ratio of 15 to 1. If that isn't bias, I don't know what is.
Crapman is another story. He is socialist and looks at any issue as to whether it will further the socialsit agenda of a government take over of the means of production in our country.
If you happen on a dead wood copy of the NYT - drop it file 13. Don't go to their web site(s). Just by going to a web site you make them money because they can count you as a visitor and then charge more to advertisers. Put this red rag out of business.
The United States can produce MORE oil than anyone else
Submitted by gopcongress on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 3:37pm.
The United States can produce MORE oil than anyone else, but we need a GOP congress and a conservative / libertarian GOP president not afraid of political consequences.
"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
Ulterior Motive
Submitted by texusmc on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 3:44pm.
I am starting to think (and I know this sounds all Conspiracy Theory-ish) that ol Tommy Boy is trying to point out that this is the way to "Force" the populace to buy the more fuel efficent, smaller, eco-friendly death traps like they have in europe. Not to mention limit the travel- force them to buy local. That would "stimulate" the economy. Possibly force mass transit from city to city (shovel ready projects that the Gov't cna control). yep just like all of europe and the "Former" eastern block countries. hmmmm something to ponder.
I propose a tax on Tom Friedman every time he says something...
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 4:06pm.
...stupid.
I guess he doesn't think our economy is tanking fast enough.
$3.75/gal +/- is when economic damage starts to kick in, and we are at about $3.40/gal as of today around here.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Laughable
Submitted by MOS7532 on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 4:34pm.
Along with the idiotic/unconstitutional/orwellian nature of this idea that has already been adequately expressed, I especially like the lie about using it to pay down the deficit. A leftist moron like Friedman will always find yet another social justice causethat this money would absolutely "need" to be thrown at.
Mostly, it'll
Submitted by UpNorth on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 2:14am.
have to go to pay for expanded unemployment benefits, and welfare payments, because no one will be working, and no one will be able to afford things, like food and heat.
Friedman is one of the prime examples of "Good for thee, but not for me". He can afford $10.00/gal. gas, not many of us can. He can afford to heat a monstrosity of a home, much like Algore(maybe not for long, for Al), not so much for us.
$4 gas my a$$
Submitted by TymTrvlr on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 12:40pm.
Why not 100.00 a gallon, why not 200.00 a gallon? 4.00 to 5.00 gallon is targeted for the middle class, the producers of society that need transportation to and from work. Clowns like this moron, I mean take a look at this idiot, does he even look intelligent to anyone other than a rock.
he is just another buttkisser, making outrageous statements to give himself some semblance of authority, 15 seconds of fame. Anyone that listens to this fool-ade drinker needs to have their head examined, but don't expect me to fall in line behind this backward jerkwater.