At a pump near you: a 'solve-everything' tax.

• Author: Tierney, John
• Position: OPINION

I have a proposal to save energy, cut air pollution, reduce highway fatalities, and, while we're at it, reform Social. Security. All we have to do is raise the federal, gasoline tax by 50 cents per gallon and refund all the new revenue directly to Americans by putting it in new Social Security individual, accounts. I realize how crazy this sounds, given the current public anger with high gas prices, but bear with me. Many experts say the $3 per gallon price isn't going to last, that the price will end up sooner or tater back around $2 per gallon. Suppose you gradually phase in the tax only when prices fall Consumers would still see their costs declining at the pump, so there would...