All Intensive Purposes

In what would be a logical extension of the Republican philosophy of governance, Todd Zywicki proposes that President Bush stop collecting the federal gas tax to score political points in an election year. Sounds great! What's the catch?

The only downside I can see would be that Republicans would take flack from environmentalists and elite opinion for not encouraging short-term conservation. But these groups aren't in play anyway. Moreover, if it is clearly styled as short-term relief, over which demand and supply are highly inelastic, then it shouldn't affect long-term gasoline use anyway.

Focusing purely on the short-term political questions, can anyone think of any reason why President Bush would not want to propose this and have the Republicans roll it through Congress?

While you're at, why not increase spending on federal transportation projects too? And you could promise everyone a pony while you're at it. Or just mint new money and give it away.

But why does he ask people to "focus purely on the short-term political questions?" With conservatives in office, isn't that a given?