The Washington Post Hates Cheaps Gas, Thinks It Should Be Taxed Until Americans Can’t Afford It - Say Anything

In an editorial headlined “Start Making Sense” the Washington Post bemoans cheap gas prices brought on by falling oil prices and suggests that we make our country safer and more energy independent by taxing gas until its such an expensive commodity that Americans use it sparingly.

Now I understand this impulse. The countries in the middle east where we get a lot of our oil from are not ruled by nice people, and enriching those people makes us less safe. And while I’m a devout global warming skeptic, I don’t think that air pollution is a good thing and feel that it would be nice to move to an energy source that doesn’t emit pollutants when used.

That being said, I don’t think it’s just for the government to pick a certain commodity, decide it doesn’t want that commodity used any more, and then essentially tax it out of existence. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have careers tied up in the oil industry. There are millions more who are invested in the oil industry. Are we really going to tell these people that they’re out of a job, and they’re going to have to take a hit on their investments, because the government has decided to tax the oil industry out of existence?