ABC's Diane Sawyer Pleads for European-style Gas Tax

Newsbusters ^ | May 19, 2009 - 11:01 | Scott Whitlock

[chuck_the_tv_out]

"Good Morning America" co-host Diane Sawyer on Tuesday aggressively lobbied for the Obama administration to install a European-style gas tax on the United States. Talking to Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, about Obama's plans for increased fuel standards, she began, "Why not just go to a gas tax, for instance, which would accomplish a reduction in the use of gasoline, dependence on foreign oil right away?" Sawyer would proceed to ask variations on this question six times.

Citing calls for a gas tax by New York Times columnist Tom Friedman,

[chuck_the_tv_out]

"deny lower-income people access to transportation": the liberal rallying cry

[relictele]

Diane’s private car service driving her a few blocks across Manhattan is a write-off anyway - what does she care about the pharmaceutical salesman or the trucking company driving hundreds of miles a day?

[Doctor Raoul]

It’s not going to hurt her. She’s the evil rich if there is such a thing as the evil rich.

[Sig Sauer P220]

Said the woman who is limosuined around by ABC.

[La Lydia]

Why should she be concerned about the price of gas. That’s for little people to worry about. Her contract includes a requirement that the network keep a car and driver for her personal use anytime she might need it.

[Tijeras_Slim]

This spastic weasel bitch thinks the world begins and ends on the upper Westside.

[Doctor Raoul]

Fund my private jet too Diane.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

This is all about killing the middle-class and rural folks. The poor will have subsidies and the rich will be immune.

[brownsfan]

Typical, stupid, liberal b*tch.
You see, a huge raise of the gas tax would have virtually no impact on Diane, so she’s all for it. Force the little people into using public transportation, Diane will continue to be driven around in her Escalade.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Isn’t Diane Sawyer part of the same MSM who, when a Republican was in the WH, gave us an endless drumbeat of stories about how high the price of gasoline was becoming and what a terrible thing it was, disproportionately affecting the poor, etc.?

Now, they’re leading the charge to increase the price via an extortionate gas tax. But that’s ok, apparently.

[DuncanWaring]

“Drill Here, Drill Now” would also reduce dependence on foreign oil.

[KarlInOhio]

"Why not just go to a gas tax, for instance, which would accomplish a reduction in the use of gasoline, dependence on foreign oil right away?"

Production costs in Saudi Arabia are less than production costs in the US. If we reduce our total demand, US wells will be the first to shut down. The way to reduce our need for foreign gasoline is to find a new fuel source or apply tarrifs to foreign oil imports.

[a fool in paradise]

The Evil Rich are the ones who denounce the wealthy and push for higher taxes while shielding their own wealth from confiscation by the state.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

No, we need to tax the BS that flows from these idiots mouths.

[Tanniker Smith]

Perot tried arguing for that and was denounced for the "50-cent gas tax".
Now the Dems want to do that all at once.

[Will88]

Heard an audio of this earlier. Actually, this is peculiar coming from Sawyer. A sharp increase in gasoline would hurt Obama because most Americans don’t want a return to $4.00 gasoline. And that’s why Browner would not agree with her.

Strange, maybe Sawyer let her own zealotry get the best of her, forgetting that such a sudden move could damage Obama and the Dems badly in 2010. - That’s a post-2010, or even post 2012 policy initiative.

[bill1952]

And watch food prices skyrocket!

Doesn't anyone have even an ounce of common sense at all?

How do things get shipped in America??

[Alberta's Child]

If we reduce our total demand, US wells will be the first to shut down.

Excellent point. This should be repeated loud and often.

[nina0113]

This is all about killing the middle-class and rural folks.

Yep - force the poor people into the cities where they can all take the bus.

[Schnucki]

Sure, pay $6 per gallon. That should help the economy.

[RebelTXRose]

Is THIS the tax that is working so well for Spain? I saw an earlier post saying Spain’s version of “cap & trade” was disasterous.

[truthguy]

I was going to make the same comments about the rich liberal elites. Diane Sawyer is a perfect example of what I like to call an educated idiot. She has plenty of money so an increase in gas tax would not make a difference in the way she lives or her job. At least not immediately. But a tax on gas right now would be devastating for many on the edge. She either could care less or is simply too stupid to understand this. She simply exists in a world that's different from the average person. In a forum or debate she would be slaughtered on the issues. But people like her never go there.

This is why someone like Diane Sawyer could never survive in talk radio. She's simply doesn't have the intellect.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

"Good Morning America" co-host Diane Sawyer on Tuesday aggressively lobbied for the Obama administration to install a European-style gas tax on the United States.

Most of us in the US can't afford to live in Manhattan with a chauffeur to drive us around. And there are far more of us than there are idiotic media elites. Push too far on this and watch the Democratic majority evaporate.

[G Larry]

Well Diane, here’s why a gas tax is a lousy idea:

It is NOT the job of the Federal government to restrict commerce, production, the mobility of the American people and consumption in general.
Your premise regarding impacts to “global warming” are flawed and auto emmisions are the lowest in history.

Stifling American industry is always a lousy goal!

[kedd]

Not only food but everything else. Don’t any of these people understand that when fuel goes up so does the cost of transporting goods? The beautiful people don’t have any common sense. Just lots of money.

Does the term politburo ring a bell? That’s exactly what is happening here. We have a bunch of elites who will be living high on the hog hanging out in their dashas while the rest of us go scrounging around for food. What the heck is the matter with the people in this country? Can’t they see further than their noses? Why am I asking these questions when we already know the answer. Never underestimate the stupidity of the American public.

[Brookhaven]

Why not go for a gas tax? Becauase it would wreck the economy.

Are people like Sawyer just dumb?

[FlingWingFlyer]

Liberal elitists like Sawyer sure can be a pain in the @$$. They are always looking for ways to screw over “the little people.” Dizzy Diane and her elitist comrades are always ready to tell us what is good for us. Isn’t the mommy state grand?

[F15Eagle]

What an idiot. Doesn’t she understand that it hurts the low-income people the most?

[Camel Joe]

“deny lower-income people access to transportation”: the liberal rallying cry

Force the masses into the cities where they will be prey for those who feed upon human misery. Elitist housing on one side of the tracks and the new tenant housing developments on the other. The serfs must live closely to the means of production so that the Gub’ment can impose a lower wage upon the unions after card check passes and all workers are union members. It will be a single workers union controlled by the Gub’ment to favor the elitist oligarchy.

[kromike]

How do things get shipped in America??

Diane is a liberal. Facts, Truth, and Reality are inconveniences to her. She probably thinks that food "just appears" via Star Trek transporters.

[mmichaels1970]

Doesn’t she understand that it hurts the low-income people the most?

I don't think she cares about that. To her, we, as slaves belong on buses and trains...mass transportation to the "service camps" I think.

[bill1952]

Dude. There is no such word as “dieing.”

It is “dying.”

[bill1952]

You are exactly right.

[freekitty]

This woman has drunk the koolaid. Nothing more here. What’s next?

[F15Eagle]

Wait until O tries to raise the electric bills on the poor.

He’ll give them “hope and change”.

[DuncanWaring]

Production costs in Saudi Arabia are less than production costs in the US. If we reduce our total demand, US wells will be the first to shut down.

That makes no sense.

If I run an American oil company, and have a choice of pumping my own oil for $30 a barrel or buying it from the Saudis for $60 a barrel (current price) to refine and sell, I'm going to pump my own.

[sappy]

we alredy have a gas tax Diane, the govt makes more per gallon of gas than the oil companies.

[cranked]

Can someone in NY please jack-slap her for me?

[pepperhead]

Is this woman on crack? The economy is in the crapper. We can’t afford this.

[mak5]

How about we drill for our own oil, which would reduce costs for all of us, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs, raise tax revenues...these all look like positives to me.

[exist]

Diane Sawyer always looks constipated.

[Argus]

Yes liberals, by all means raise taxes on gasoline, and explain to the public exactly why you’re doing it. Then explain why you won’t allow any domestic drilling for oil. And please get all this done in time for the next election.

[BJClinton]

"deny lower-income people access to transportation": the liberal rallying cry

Actually they'd use po' people not being able to afford gas as an excuse to raise taxes on the working class to pay for subsidized gas for the poor.

[Cheetahcat]

“Diane Sawyer always looks constipated.”

She is and full to the brim of Democrat!

[SES1066]

Citing calls for a gas tax by New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, she pressed, "If you really want to change the fuel patterns of this country, and if you want to reduce dependence on foreign oil, not by 2015 or 2016, but right now, there is one way to do it. It's the way Europe has been doing it. And that is a gasoline tax."

As others have wisely said, an immediate rise in a gas tax would be regressive for the poor and a corresponding rise in transportation costs throughout the economy. It will have the most deleterious effect on those who don't live in the cities.

What many fail to realize is that the European Union is half the area of the USofA while having 3 times the population density. This has a definite effect on travel/transportation distances and costs favoring Europe in terms of lesser fuel usage.

Finally, this demonstrates the fishbowl effect of the NY Media. Here it is sufficient proof that a NY Times columnist has proposed a 'solution' for it to be accepted as "divine revelation". Also left unsaid is what will happen to these tremendous revenues resulting from such an enormous tax increase. Can we say even bigger government?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

She could use a double shot of vodka...

[Nat Turner]

Diane is a liberal. Facts, Truth, and Reality are inconveniences to her. She probably thinks that food "just appears" via Star Trek transporters.

We all know its "Replicators" that make food not transporters LOL

[Josa]

Not only does she have a ABC provided limousine, she lives in one of the few cities in this country with an extensive public transportation system. I live in Savannah, GA.
Heaven help us if we had to depend on public transportation in this city.

Savannah is a small city that could not afford to pay for public transportation. PLUS, if gasoline is $6 a gallon, public transportation costs are going to skyrocket, too.
D.C. Metro experienced exactly that problem this summer when gas prices were above $4 a gallon.

[KarlInOhio]

If I run an American oil company, and have a choice of pumping my own oil for $30 a barrel or buying it from the Saudis for $60 a barrel (current price) to refine and sell, I'm going to pump my own.

Yes, at current prices. But what happens if Diane Sawyer's dream of a multi-dollar per gallon gas tax happens and demand drops. The pretax price per barrel might drop to $20 and the Saudis can still make a profit. You will cap your well and send your crew home until the price goes back up.

[central_va]

“Drill Here, Drill Now” would also reduce dependence on foreign oil. “Drill Here, Drill Now” would also reduce dependence on foreign oil.

"Drill here drill now" is the sign we all have collectively hanging over our backsides now that the greenies have taken over...