Some people believe the gas tax should be much higher than current rate.

[ZombieHorde]

Video discusses the "actual" price of gas. I thought it was really interesting. What do you think?

[Comrade_McKenzie]

1. Unless they're handing out free electric cars...no. nt

[Zalatix]

2. Exactly. I'd rather pay with more pollution, wars over oil, ocean acidification, and global warming.

[unblock]

3. the cost of "wars over oil" aspect is vastly overstated.

mainly because if we didn't have wars over oil, we'd just have wars over something else.

[SoutherDem]

4. Good question

I have a problem with end user or consumer taxes. They hit the poor more than the rich although they may be the same %. For me to earn a living I have a minimum amount of driving I must do, but that minimum for me is not much different than a CEO. True the CEO may have more nonessential driving as I do and would pay more but if they drove 24/7 it still wouldn't balance the effect on me vs them.

If we were assured the tax was used for what it is suppose to be, then I may accept it more but it still would be harder on the poor.

If we need to tax more for the environment then perhaps add a tax based on the value or mpg of the vehicle at purchase and during the yearly tag purchase.

A gas tax also may need to be adjusted to some benchmark. Increase it when the economy is better and decrease it when it is not, but then the oil companies may increase the price while the tax was lower, so it would almost require some form of price controls which would never be accepted in the U.S.

Here is an idea, step 1 stop the corporate welfare we give the oil companies, then tax the oil companies a environment tax. But then you would have to do something to insure they didn't pass the tax on to the consumer.

I get the premiss and I do understand we are paying more than the price at the pump, but I don't see a way to tax gas without hurting the poor a lot more than the rich.

Actually there may be one way. When income taxes are filed each year give a credit for those under a certain income. But then again why not just fix the tax system starting with going back to pre-Reagan tax cuts and call it a day.

[Chan790]

5. I'd support higher gas taxes...

if the increased revenue were directly earmarked for public-transit expansion and subsidy and done in a receding manner so as to fall as the dissuasive effect of such taxes causes gas-usage and gas-tax revenues to also recede.

[jp11]

6. I think it hasn't been raised/adjusted in nearly 20 years

so it is far beyond time to correct that. Beyond that I'd say the tax should be increased but other things need to happen like higher fuel efficiency standards. Updates to roads to reduce congestion, programs to invest in newer technologies and get them in place to get off of fossil fuels or use them more efficiently.

We'd also need to work on improving and increasing public transportation to reduce the 'need' for so many to drive so many places. The taxes raised from gasoline should be locked into doing the best for roads, cleaner technologies, or combat the costs associated with fossil fuels, air pollution and or our extra costs for fuel wars/etc.

We also need to end the ability of business to speculate on the costs of oil if they aren't actually in that business ie air travel. With the new/adjusted taxes we need to prevent the oil companies from passing that on to the consumer. The taxes need to come out of the oil companies profits period. We also should stop giving tax breaks to these same oil companies who can get away with not paying any taxes or perhaps even make money from our subsidies.

The short of it is gas should cost more but our cars should be more fuel efficient and smaller. For the longer term future we need to stop building cities and designing our country where everything requires a 10+ minute car trip to do anything. More mass transit, smaller cities that are designed with less empty space between everything, less giant stores sprawling along highways, etc.

[DCKit]

7. If it were pegged to the price of gasoline, rather than a flat fee/gallon....

it would give people a lot more reason to hate Big Oil.

And yeah, I buy gas, but it should be higher and the money should go toward infrastructure and supporting public transportation projects.