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It was only a few weeks ago that France seemed to be on the verge of total breakdown. The flammable environment of French politics was created by the political disconnect between provincial France and the Parisian elite. French president Emmanuel Macron announced a simple policy adjustment in that environment, and suddenly the country and its cities lit up with explosive protests that shut down the cities.Donald Trump is looking to do the same here in the United States. It won’t generate the same kind of movement — American politics are not as combustible as their French counterpart — but it’s just as stupid here as it was there. The policy is raising taxes on gasoline. Trump is considering a 25-cent per-gallon tax that would fund infrastructure projects. The Chamber of Commerce supports the idea. Democrats are excited about it and Republicans are reported to be “divided†by it . . .. . . The last president to raise taxes on gas was Bill Clinton. He did so in 1993, just before the landslide election that created the modern Republican congressional majority.It’s difficult to express how stupid this gas tax would be . . . Gas taxes are insidiously regressive. They don’t just impose extra costs on those who commute long distances. Over time the raised fuel costs of trucking, delivery, fertilizing, and harvesting flow through to everything. You wake up and every bite of corn flakes is more expensive. Your morning commute is of course more expensive. The tax gets priced into your property tax bill, which goes up to pay the higher fuel bill for the fleet of school buses for public schools. Snowplow services become more expensive. A gas tax like this follows people everywhere . . .. . . The Trump revenue legacy is becoming almost a caricature of the country-club Republicanism he ran against. It is relatively easy to avoid the increased prices on certain appliances due to Trump’s trade wars. It would be impossible to avoid the costs that a gas tax would impose, which would fall disproportionately on the people Trump claims to serve. And it would do so at a time when gas prices are already rising quickly . . .
