Proposed Increase in Gasoline Tax

Bravo to Anthony Beilenson! It takes guts for a congressman to embrace an unpopular measure such as increasing the tax on gasoline. It is hoped that he will be joined by others to put this issue above partisan politics and do what the country desperately needs.

Beilenson mentions that a 30-cent-a-gallon additional tax would bring in revenues of $30 billion. It follows that an extra dollar-a-gallon gasoline tax would bring in about $90 billion, allowing for price/demand elasticity. These funds could be used, as he says, to reduce our annual deficit, which would reduce inflation, strengthen the dollar. Alternate uses for these funds could be to save our Social Security System, reduce income taxes, increase welfare benefits, provide more money for education, and many other things that would improve our quality of life.

We Americans feel that we have some kind of divine right to buy big cars, live many miles from our work and gorge ourselves on pleasure driving. In every other major country I can think of, governments long ago recognized the wisdom of taxing fuel consumption. A significant result of this has been the overseas development of fuel-efficient cars, which have captured an important share of the worldwide automobile market.

A stiff tax on gasoline would deter oil-producing countries from sticking it to us with future price increases. If we had been smart and imposed this tax years ago, this money could have reduced our national debt instead of helping some of these other countries fund their terrorist activities.

Please stay with this, Rep. Beilenson. You are demonstrating vision and wisdom that is sorely lacking among many of your fellow legislators. I applaud you and from now on you certainly have my vote!

BERNARD G. RAMOS

Los Angeles