higher gasoline taxes

リンク: The Washington Monthly.

WALL STREET JOURNAL WATCH....Brad DeLong has a long post today about Greg Mankiw's recent Wall Street Journal op-ed endorsing higher gasoline taxes. You should read the whole thing (it's an interesting discussion), but since this is a weekend I just want to highlight the objection raised by the estimable Scott Hodge, President of the Tax Foundation:

The French have some of the highest gas taxes in Europe yet remain 100% dependent on foreign oil.

It's true! There are no oil fields anywhere within the boundaries of the French Republic, which necessarily means that if the French use even a single liter of oil, they will be 100% dependent on foreign oil. For the same reason, the United States remains dangerously dependent on foreign supplies of cocoa beans, bananas, and high-quality Gouda cheese.

Scott Hodge apparently has a low assessment of the IQ of the Wall Street Journal's opinion page readers. The editors of the Wall Street Journal opinion page seem to share this assessment. I wonder if their readers know this?

—Kevin Drum 1:03 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (67)