The Patriot Tax and the New Apollo Project

A $10/barrel tax on oil would bring in $70 billion/year. This money would be used to finance a Project Apollo-like program with the goal of having the US be energy independent by 2015. The cost of a gallon of gasoline would go up by about $1.15.

It would be called the Patriot Tax because clearly energy independence is a matter of national security. No, drilling in the ANWR is not a matter of national security, not yet, because all the oil there is only a drop in the bucket of what the US uses in a year.

This new "Apollo" project would of course generate millions of jobs, and would serve as an engine for scientific and technical progress, employing a vast pool of scientists and engineers which would inevitably lead the country to greater prosperity in the future.

It would also help restore a sense of community to the US, with the end result being a source of pride in national accomplishment for generations to come.

Of course, a gasoline tax is a regressive tax, since poor people generally need to drive just as much as rich people. So the second part of the Patriot Tax would be to restore Clinton Era tax rates to the high end, where all the money is, to help pay for the cost of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.