If the crazies that surface in Kansas public policy debates vex you, take heart from this gas story in the Albany, Ore., Democrat-Herald.
The governor of Oregon, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, wants to put the eye of government in all vehicles and tax them by mileage driven, rather than the conventional state gasoline tax used there and in other states, like Kansas.
Now, in addition to all the personal privacy issues and potential for abuse this nutty idea raises, it also puts the hammer again to the beleaguered transportation industry.
My heart goes out to those folks: We can’t as a country allow them to enjoy a few months of lower fuel prices. Instead, bureaucrats hungry for the tax dollar go back to the drawing board to see what they can siphon off an industry whose increased costs end up clobbering each and every one of us.
I’ve got a better idea: Let’s tax politicians by the stupid and self-serving public policy ideas they develop.
There wouldn’t be a dirt road in America.