I survived the Memorial Day commute from Boston to Washington. I filled-up in Connecticut at $2.20 a gallon. I'm used to the high prices by now, but some of the fine print on the gas pump really startled me. A posted notice itemized the taxes included in the cost per gallon of gas. The federal government snatches more than 18 cents per gallon, while the state of Connecticut's take amounts to about a quarter for every gallon of gas. On top of all this, an additional tax of 5% of the total cost is levied, which amounts to about a dime per gallon.

What this means is that, in Connecticut at least, government is responsible for about one-fourth of what you pay in direct costs at the pump. Fifty-five or so cents of the $2.20 I paid for every gallon of gas went to government.

It's convenient for American politicians to blame Riyadh for the high price of petroleum when Washington, DC (not to mention state capitals like Hartford) deserves some of the blame as well. We rail about Saudi Arabian gas price hikes (which we can't control), but are silent about American gas tax hikes (which we can control).

Despite the absurdity of a 25% tax on gasoline when prices are skyrocketing, some pundits who call themselves conservative (though they might prefix that label with "neo" or "compassionate") are calling for higher gas taxes. Higher taxes make us less free and hinder prosperity. Why would any conservative want government siphoning more than what it already takes?

Perhaps homesick, Brit Andrew Sullivan hopes for a more Europeanized taxation policy on gas, while Charles Krauthammer argues for a $3 floor for a gallon of gas. "Keep gasoline prices high and American consumers will once again start demanding and buying lighter and more fuel-efficient cars--exactly as they did in the late '70s and early '80s. Prices will continue to drop, and the U.S. economy will capture the difference," Krauthammer writes.

Nice try, but the U.S. government, not the economy, "will capture the difference." The U.S. economy will suffer, as costs will inflate on airline tickets, products transported to stores, and everything else that factors gasoline costs into its price. And these "lighter" and "more fuel-efficient" cars that Krauthammer dreams of--do they have sails or Flintstones-style foot-power? Cars would be more fuel-efficient if they were made of cardboard, but wouldn't this make them less safe?

Why do we need liberals when we have "conservatives" like Krauthammer and Sullivan?

Isn't a fuel tax an incredibly regressive form of taxation, burdening the middle and lower classes much more than the wealthy? Why do all these progressives want such a regressive form of taxation?

Actually Andrew Sullivan proposed that all cars be modeled after the car Mr Garrison invented on South Park. His second, less successful, proposal was to mandate that all cars be modeled after the Oscar Meyer Wienner car.