more gas tax

Thomas Friedman weighs in, with considerable force:

Today’s financial crisis is Obama’s 9/11. The public is ready to be mobilized. Obama is coming in with enormous popularity. This is his best window of opportunity to impose a gas tax. And he could make it painless: offset the gas tax by lowering payroll taxes, or phase it in over two years at 10 cents a month. But if Obama, like Bush, wills the ends and not the means — wills a green economy without the price signals needed to change consumer behavior and drive innovation — he will fail.

Comments

[Russell]

I love your blog and appreciate your insight, but T.F. is so thoroughly discredited that any link to his writing diminishes your blog.

[Tom Grey]

I'd advise Obama to push for some big stimulus, say $1000 per worker (according to tax forms filed), and send out checks, first, then raise the gas tax to cover it a month later (assuming the gas tax amount increase covers it in a year).
And repeat this each month of the financial crisis.