I'd Have Gas ...

... If I Could Afford It.

Plenty of ink has been spilled recently about the price of gasoline here in these United States. And, predictably, one theme is the universal cure-all, the new "prayer", the exhortation:

• The Government Should Do Something About This.

According to Harris Poll #66, released August 24, 2005, gas prices are one of the top five issues Americans want the federal government to address. Ten percent of Americans now believe that the price of gas is the most important issue for the federal government to tackle when Congress goes back to work in September.

Well, knock me over with a peacock feather, friends, because I would like to pay less at the pump too. And I know that there is something "the government" could do tomorrow to cut the price of gas by at least twenty percent (20%).

• Eliminate all taxes on gasoline.

State, federal, county, local, whatever. The government's already got its greedy, sticky fingers over twice as deep in our pockets as Egypt did the Israelites (according to the Book of Genesis - and Gary North). And it is probably even worse than that by the time you roll in sales tax, property tax, and all the other basis points raked out of our souls by Your Benevolent Government. Easy come, easy go.

So, in the coming weeks, every time you hear one of our "public servants" throw up its hands - literally or rhetorically - and claim to be unable to help, do like me. Call them a Big Stinking Liar and spit on the sidewalk. Right then and there.

Or resume the position.

(I say this because of course that twenty-some percent of the price of a gallon of gasoline we pay subsidizes somebody and something. And those somebodies won't take it lying down. They'll complain. And people will be sympathetic. Legislators (other than Ron Paul) will lack the resolve. Policymakers will be frozen in their tracks. Deer in the headlights.)

The tyrants have taken over the asylum.

"Thank you, Sir. May I have another?"