Gas for $0.88
We are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I need to fill my car with gas. The asking price is an an astonishingly low $1.66 per gallon. As I fill my sedan it occurs to me that even at $1.66 it feels overpriced. Oil prices are in the negative, but somehow it still costs $30 to fill the tank. Its time to end gas taxes.
A quick internet search tells me what I already assumed to be true: 45% of the entire cost of gas is just taxes. Between Pennsylvania and the Federal Government, taxes account for all but $0.88 cents per gallon. That’s how much it costs to extract, refine, and sell for a profit. Every other penny is government picking American pockets.
Americans consume 142 Billion gallons of gasoline per year. That means around $109.66 Billion of our hard earned dollars getting funneled right back to the government. In good times, its highway robbery. In a pandemic when money is especially tight, it’s morally wrong to keep this burden on Americans.
My wife is an emergency room nurse, an essential employee who still needs to fill her tank. Families need to get food, they still need to fill their tanks. Our friends and neighbors need reliable transportation in the best and worst of times, reliable transportation means needing to fill their tanks.
The gas tax is an unnecessary tax on a people who now, more than ever, could use an extra $109 Billion in their pockets.
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