Saturday, April 17, 2004
 
Andrew Sullivan Goes Mad

Andrew Sullivan has actually gone mad:
    TAX GAS MORE: All of your opposition merely convinced me I was right. Here's my Time column on why raising gas taxes would be a very good thing. Here's Ramesh Ponnuru's critique. Make your own mind up.
Make your mind up, but the more you oppose me, the more I convince myself I am right? I fall upon the thorns of life, I bleed? Yeek.

Here's his argument for greater taxation to improve your behavior, citizen:
    The worst knock against a gas tax is that it is, well, a tax. Who likes that? But with soaring deficits and a war to pay for, taxes are not an option — they're a necessity. The only relevant question is, Which taxes? The case for a gas tax is a straightforward one. Gas prices are strikingly lower in America than anywhere else in the world; such taxes are relatively easy to collect; since an overwhelming majority of Americans drive, few avoid the tax; and by adding a cost to the wanton consumption of gasoline, you actually encourage conservation, accelerate fuel efficiency, reduce pollution, cut traffic and help wean Americans off the oil that requires the U.S. to be so intimately involved in that wonderful cesspool of rival hatreds, the Middle East. So what's not to like?
As a source of tax money, recognize that money will be spent on programs with an ongoing basis, and that if the government successfully modifies the behavior of its foolish, short-sighted, and lesser mortal citizens, the government will need to make that amount of money up elsewhere. Which means deficits or other tax increases down the road.

Pretty soon, we're going to have to stop calling Sullivan a "conservative," aren't we?

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:49 AM
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