A column by Richard G. Lugar, the Republican senator from Indiana, first printed in the Washington Post and reprinted in Monday's Statesman, makes an eerily familiar proposal to implement a gas tax offset by a reduction in the payroll tax (we'll take his word that he got the idea from Charles Krauthammer in the Weekly Standard). more ›

There was an interesting editorial in yesterday's Washington Post. Basically, the price of oil has fallen dramatically in the last few weeks and gas prices are coming down as a result. This is good new for the stock market and Hummer drivers, but it threatens to wipe out recent decreases in domestic consumption of gasoline (U.S. motorists to drove 12.2 billion fewer miles in June compared with a year earlier). The bottom line of the editorial is that higher gas prices result in lower consumption, so any national energy policy seriously aimed at reducing consumption should include an increased gas tax that would maintain the incentives to conserve gasoline. more ›