Gas taxes and gas pump activism (Update: Spanish version linked)
According to the American Petroleum Institute, this is how state-level gas taxes shake out. Click to enlarge.
As it does in every other tax category, California comes off as golden only if you really love to pay way too much to your bloated, inefficient government for the privilege of having it dictate more and more of your life. In fact, with the exception of Florida, the blue states are reliably red when it comes to gas taxes.
These taxes are not, of course, the source of the spike in oil prices. Middle East instability and the Obama administration’s stubborn refusal to increase supply by allowing more domestic oil exploration and drilling are contributing mightily to that. With the 2012 election season on the way, Disrupt the Narrative has a brilliant idea for reminding swing voters that, in one area at least, President Obama has managed to keep a promise. Click to enlarge, and click over to DtN for the full size, printable version. By the way, they’re looking for someone to create a Spanish version of the graphic. Do we have a translator in the house?
Update: Heh.
Update: And now, by popular demand, the Spanish version.
Gas taxes don’t cause price increases, but they make them worse, because the taxes are typically a percentage of the price. If the price goes up a dollar, a ten percent tax makes that increase a dollar and a dime.
It depends on the state. I live in Colorado and the gas tax is fixed. Other states vary the tax with the price of gas. Your mileage may vary.
If the Republican Party were smart, they’d have that video of Obama saying that energy prices would “necessarily skyrocket” under his plan playing on a continuous loop in every medium (radio, TV, and the Internet) from now ’til Election Day spliced with video of people filling up, giving a thumbs up to the camera and sarcastically saying “Thanks Obama!”.
“If the Republican Party were smart…”
Sadly, you can stop reading right about there, unless you’re into speculative fiction.
Unfortunately, we live in a world of dystopian facts.
I’m all for propagating anything that will remind people (if they ever paid attention to begin with) of Fearless Leader’s promises, but this is an easy accusation to refute. The full context is that energy, and especially coal prices would skyrocket because cap & trade would be implemented. It wasn’t.
I much prefer reminding people that back in the beginning of April, before it became a hot potato politically, Obama advised that there’s not much he can do but that consumers are to blame for high gas prices anyway.
Although there is some poetic license involved, cap & trade are being implemented behind the closed doors of the EPA at the direction of this President. And yes, the quote was specifically about coal, but preventing drilling is part of Obama’s overall energy strategy which is resulting in the high prices we’re paying today.
It’s not like it’s an outright lie like the ones that flow from the mouth of Obama. Just a logical extension of his philosophy.
Besides, it’s hard to put signs on large piles of coal.
The lowest state tax rate is around 26 cents a gallon, every single gallon, in Alaska, and yet we hear the moonbats yammering about “subsidies to oil companies”.
It’s amazing how backward some people are…
Drop the graph (too much information…anybody at all sentient knows about the price) AND the inane “Promise Kept” heading. Underneath the picture put a banner headline: “Mission Accomplished”. For full effect, use an actual picture from Bush’s Lincoln visit.
Can’t anybody play this game?
Where you have high volume demand you will always have high volume political corruption. Oil is the most critical high volume demand commodity around the globe….and also the most misunderstood by the common folks and misrepresented by politicians and Wall Streeters.
The federal government regulates every facet of the oil commodity and industries, from exploration to finished commodities, domestic and foreign, aside from taxing its domestic uses as combustion engine fuel. Then comes the Wall Street and investor type folks.
The myriad of other variable are irrelevent to understanding. The federal government and the Wall Street community ‘drive’ the oil commodity and industries from A to Z. Government manipulates oil for a host of political and social special interest agenda’s….that is the simple and factual bottom line. Supply versus actual demand is no longer even in the top three controlling variables regardless of the intellectual lineup saying it is so. Political and Wall Street corruption is the number one variable!
Yet another reason to consider relocating to Texas …
I’ve got a decal at Gconservative.com. Just says “These high prices brought to you by Barack Obama” with his picture next to it. Leaves no residue so you don’t have to worry about the vandalism issue.