{"id":3993,"date":"2011-06-26T05:59:42","date_gmt":"2011-06-26T11:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3993"},"modified":"2011-06-26T05:59:42","modified_gmt":"2011-06-26T11:59:42","slug":"the-tragedy-of-the-gas-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3993","title":{"rendered":"The Tragedy Of The Gas Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edward Niedermeyer:<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson set off something of a firestorm a few weeks ago, when he said<\/a>, in response to a question about forthcoming CAFE increases:<\/p>\n

\n

You know what I’d rather have them do \u2014 this will make my Republican friends puke \u2014 as gas is going to go down here now, we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Predictably, populists<\/a> and economic alarmists<\/a> of all stripes took great umbrage at Akerson’s candor, questioning his leadership of GM as well as his perspective on the shaky US economy. But Akerson is not alone in his support of some form of gas-tax increase. Bob Lutz<\/a> and Tom Friedman<\/a> (an odd couple right there, if ever there was one) agree with him. Edmunds CEO Jeremy Anwyl defended<\/a> Akerson and even suggested<\/a> a $2\/gallon tax earlier this year. Bill Ford<\/a> and AutoNation’s Mike Jackson<\/a> are of the same mind as now-retired Republican Senator George Voinovich<\/a> on the issue. And yet, inside the Beltway, the subject tends to draw a chuckle and a roll of the eyes. Everyone wants it, but nobody wants<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edward Niedermeyer: General Motors CEO Dan Akerson set off something of a firestorm a few weeks ago, when he said, in response to a question about forthcoming CAFE increases: You know what I’d rather have them do \u2014 this will make my Republican friends puke \u2014 as gas is going to go down here now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,21,9,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3993"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3994,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3993\/revisions\/3994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}