Liberal Thoughts on Gas Taxes

 Krayton Kerns
5.14.08

When I was twelve we rigged a hill-top television antenna.  It received three channels and amazingly, two of them even had picture and sound.  After the effort of stringing TV wire the half mile down the hill behind the barn and into the house, it was disappointing to learn there wasn’t anything of value broadcast over the air ways. 

Now, 39 years later, I have satellite TV with a thousand channels broadcasting the same nothingness.  I guess that is progress.  Last week a 3:00 am bout of insomnia had me surfing my remote into the uncharted waters of the 600 series channels.  There I stumbled across the MAN channel.  The Maximum Adventure Network is a hunting show.  The thirty minute clip began with an outfitter describing how you can improve your success if you think like your prey. 

“You’ve got to think like a bear,” he explained.    

The scene then flashed to a tree stand in Canada where they were harvesting bears that were lured to a barrel containing rotting animal parts.  “Hmmm, I wonder what that bear thinks,” I mumbled.  Something like, “Why do deer always crawl in these dang barrels before they die?” 

As I surfed on I pondered the outfitters advice.  “That might be a good idea in politics,” I thought.  “I should try thinking like a liberal…that’s scary...anyway; I’ll give it a try.”  Let’s take another look at the price of gasoline but this time from a liberal perspective.

A 42 gallon barrel of crude oil will produce 40 gallons of gasoline, so recently the costs to produce one gallon of gasoline have changed.  For example: 

September 10, 2001, crude oil was trading at $24.98 per barrel.

Seven years later, September 2008 oil futures price crude at $120 per barrel.

·        Crude oil ($120 / 40 gal.)…………$3.00

·        Refinery costs and profits………...$0.33

·        Distribution costs and profits……..$0.11

·        Montana State Tax…………..……$0.27

·        Federal Tax…………………..…...$0.18

·        Total cost per gallon…………….$3.89 

To liberals, an interesting thing happens when you compare the amount of federal and state tax (a constant 45 cents per gallon) to the climbing retail price of gasoline (highly variable due the fluctuating price of crude oil).  In 2001, a retail price of $1.52 per gallon with a tax of 45 cents yields a tax rate of 30%.  Seven years later, a retail price of $3.89 and the same tax of 45 cents, yields a tax rate of only 11.7%.  Liberals will spin that this represents a 61% tax reduction and another unfair Bush tax break given to the wealthy SUV owners at the expense of Americans driving (or pushing) hybrids.  (I probably should have kept that a secret.)   

If liberals held the fuel tax at 30%, the tax on a gallon of $3.89 gasoline would be raised to $1.16, so the retail price would become $5.05 per gallon…more like the socialist democracies of Europe.  As an example of unbridled liberalism, look at the Netherlands.  Over there when your F350 4x4 feed truck runs low on fuel, expect to shell out $9.36 US dollars for one gallon of Dutch gas.  Even with $120 dollar crude, the cost to produce one gallon of gas is $3.44, so $5.92 per gallon is confiscated in taxes.  That is insane, yet liberals claim we should emulate socialist Europe.   

I can’t do it.  Thinking like a liberal keeps me awake and gives me gas.  No more MAN channel for me; Fox News is as high up the channel selector as I will go.                     

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