Back in April, I (and anyone else who could count) just about dropped a brick when Hillary Clinton and John McCain both suggested that the pain of high gas prices could be alleviated if we just stopped taxing the stuff for a little while. It is obvious in retrospect that Hillary was experiencing the death-throes of a presidential campaign, and John McCain... well, I think I've made myself clear on this subject.

Fortunately, even the most math-challenged among us were able to see that the promise of an extra $30 bucks was not worth the $10 billion shortfall in the fund that finances highway maintenance and repairs. 

As it turns out, not only was a gas-tax holiday completely insane, but the gas-tax may actually have to go up:

"As motorists cut back on their driving and buy more fuel-efficient cars, the government is taking in less money from the federal gasoline tax.

The result: The principal source of funding for highway projects will soon hit a big financial pothole. The federal highway trust fund could be in the red by $3.2 billion or more next year."

I'll be the first to admit that any major change in the status quo was bound to have some growing pains, and this looks like a doozy.  The federal gasoline tax, as you may recall, is 18.4 cents per gallon (24.4 cents on diesel fuel).  So, as we start driving less or switching to more fuel efficient vehicles, the number of gallons consumed goes down, even though the total amount being spent on gas compared to recent years may remain steady or even continue to climb.  Because the tax is per gallon, fewer gallons means less taxes, regardless of the total amount spent.

So what are we to do? We're definitely in a tight spot.  As a result of decades of car culture, the United States has a vast concrete infrastructure to get those vehicles around.  Short term, I don't see anyway around it: bills have got to be paid. 

Here's the problem: Should the gas tax be raised? And if so, by how much? Let's break it down.

How much less is everyone driving?

Back in April, we assumed the average American was consuming 500 gallons per year.  Obviously, that number has gone down, since, well, that's the whole goddamn problem. 

Ignoring the whole diesel thing for simplicity's sake, the gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon.  If we're $3 billion short, that translates into roughly 16 billion gallons, or about 45 gallons per person.  Obviously, some large portion of this money is coming from commercial use.  If we assume half, cause I'm too lazy to try to look it up, we'll say every person is using 25 gallons less in the next year.  That would translate into a 5% reduction in gasoline consumption.  If it's true, that is pretty fantastic.   

How much would the tax need to be increased to make up the difference?

While I'm all about facing reality, it also seems clear that the only politicians to suggest raising the gas tax at a time when people are absolutely losing their minds every time they fill up are the ones that don't want to be re-elected.  Fortunately, I have declared myself ObscureCraft President-For-Life, so I'm free to explore this possibility.

If we assume our 25 gallon per person reduction annually is roughly correct, then we need each person to pay the same on 475 gallons as they would have on 500 gallons at 18.4 cents.  This comes out to... 19.4 cents.

Yup, we need to increase the gasoline tax by about a penny to make up the difference.  Let's assume a margin of error and that gasoline costs will continue to grow down, and make it 3 cents. 

Holy shit, does nobody have the cajones to suggest raising the tax by 3 cents? Or am I just such a tax-and-spend liberal that I can't see the forest for the trees? Somebody please help me out here.

If not the gas tax, then what?

I honestly can't get over the fact we're spending $1 billion a month to fuck up Iraq while we search through the couch cushion for the loose change to keep our country intact.

Irony aside, the money is going to come from somewhere.  We're either going to raise the gas-tax, invent a new tax and call it something else, or go into debt to pay for it.  Highways don't grow on trees - although they do sometimes collapse onto them.