[artplumber]

Originally posted by Jamie79SC
Art,

You pay or you pay. What do you suppose our political / military presence in the MidEast 1970 until 20XX costs?

I think that your point was that you wanted to increase taxes, with the implication from several individuals that this would maybe lower use of the resource. My point is that there are better ways to reduce the use of the resource, and significant downsides to increasing the price.

Further, the whole notion that the extra tax would be used in some insightful/useful way is... well wishful. What happens with more tax money to spend? More pork barrel politics. Go back to the old adage; expenses always rise to meet income.

As for alternate energy use, remember the GM saga with the electric car? If this happened via gubmint I couldn't imagine the outcry about those wasted dollars.

I guess I don't see the current tie-in between an attempt to raise taxes (because gas is too cheap) and the military in the ME. Haven't we been in Korea, Philipines, Germany, England etc forever, spending tons of $?