[Cicero]

I doubt if this will please most freepers, but the obvious solution is simply to increase the federal tax on gasoline, and compensate by dropping an equivalent amount of federal tax elsewhere, the AMT being the obvious thing that needs to be scrapped.

If you simply increase the price of gas, then the market will find the best ways to save fuel. The market always does a better job than government fiddling. We saw that recently when the jump in gas prices caused a lot of people to buy smaller cars than they did last year.

But naturally politicians shrink from such an obvious course of action, because it would anger the voters. They prefer stealth taxes and taxes they can peddle as "on the rich."

[paulat]

I doubt if this will please most freepers, but the obvious solution is simply to increase the federal tax on gasoline

No, Cicero...a FEDERAL tax is NOT the answer...

As to raising the price of gas...Iran will take care of that for us....