Arnold Kling, an adjunct scholar of the CATO Institute argues that the government should not cut the gas tax because if it did consumers would still pay high gas prices. Kling claims any cost savings from the gas tax would only benefit suppliers, and thus help Iran. Kling seems to think that federal taxes and regulations do not increase gas prices beyond the price set by supply and demand. No one is auguring cutting the gas tax will guarantee cheap gas, only that cutting the tax (and cutting government regulations that drive up the price of gas) will make the gas price lower than it otherwise would be, since, contra Kling, taxes and regulations do drive up the gas price.

Ah but lowering the price of gas by cutting gas taxes is a bad thing, because then people would think Congress can lower the price of gas at will. Instead, Congress should keep the price of gas high so people learn that prices can rise. For Congress to repeal taxes is to treat the American people like children. No, Dr. Kling, for Congress to repeal the gas tax is to allow the market to determine the price of gasoline and to treat Americans as a free people and not wards of the omnipotent state.