Krauthammer's Gas Tax

I agree with the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer most of the time. I have to laugh, though, when he proposes a massive tax on gasoline and says, "If the price drops to $2 [and so leaves the government with surplus tax revenues on its hands - db], plow that $1 tax right back into the American economy by immediately reducing, say, Social Security or income taxes."

I think it's much more likely, should the government reap a windfall from this proposed tax, that it would be plowed into bridges to miniscule Alaskan islands and maybe, in a final gesture to Robert Byrd, putting the White House on rollers and towing it to some obscure corner of West Virginia. (Actually, come to think of it, I like that idea).

I also have to ask, "How would this new tax disproportionately impact certain citizens, such as independent truckers (and farmers, who burn a lot of oil operating the machinery that makes them so efficient), and how many subsidiary laws would we have to pass, further complicating the tax code, in order to ameliorate that impact?"