This is a FoxNews.com story:

“A Michigan congressman wants to put a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans’ consumption. Polls show that a majority of Americans support policies that would reduce greenhouse gases. But when it comes to paying for it, it’s a different story.” We’re talking about John Dingell, Democrat-Michigan. He “wants to help cut consumption with a gas tax but some don’t agree with the idea…”

I don’t care who agrees with it and who doesn’t.

This is who Democrats are: raise your taxes, cut down on your liberty and freedom; under the guise, in this case, of reducing consumption and saving the planet.

This whole idea of consumption… “Well, I really believe we need to conserve. People are using too much gasoline, and we gotta cut back for pollution and global warming and so forth.”

Well, count me in! I’m all for conservation. But not as a means of growth.

This is a growth economy.

Look at the economic circumstances that we face right now. Regardless the reality, the perception among a lot of Americans is that the economy is heading toward recession, is it not? And are they happy with that? Are they?

Do you find people saying, “Oh, well, great. The economy is slowing down. Well, that’s really good. That means I’ll use less gasoline and I’ll use less heating oil and I won’t have as much money to go to the movies. I want the economy to slow.”

No!

People are demanding the economy pick up. People are demanding that wages go up. People are demanding more opportunity. The dangerous thing is, they’re demanding the government do this, because they want a quick fix, rather than let the market take care of itself.

You know, markets go up, markets go down, markets correct, but people are impatient. Primarily, the impatience is due to this never-ending barrage the last five years or longer from the media, about how horrible the economy is, how rotten it is.

Democrats don’t help by talking about their vision of America as soup-line America. So people want what? They want the economy to revive?

What will that require? That will require growth, will it not?

Let me ask. In the middle of… Let’s just assume for the sake of this example, that we are in a recession. Do you think conserving is going to get us out of it? Will conserving — buying less gasoline, spending less money — get us out of the recession, or if it’s not a recession, out of a slow down?

Of course not.

Growth. The American people demand it. We have the greatest lifestyle, the highest standard of living of any human beings on the face of the earth. We have more prosperity, more opportunity, but most people don’t look at it that way, because they’ve grown up as Americans, they have expectations based on their life and what they expect the country to be and that’s why downturns are not tolerated. They just aren’t.

“I don’t care how the rest of the world lives! I demand a good economy. I demand a better future for my kids than I had for myself.” Fine. I agree totally. But you’re not going to do it by taxing gasoline 50 cents a gallon and driving less. You’re not going to do it with the concept of no growth. You’re not going to get out of any economic malaise.

Can you get a raise without any growth in your company’s business? Of course not!

Conservation is fine and dandy, conservation is cool, but don’t substitute it for growth — and that’s, unfortunately, what the left is talking about. That’s what Dingell’s 50-cents-per-gallon tax increase on gasoline is. It’s conservation, and they’re appealing to your guilt because your driving, “is destroying the world and endangering the polar bears, melting the arctic ice.” Meanwhile, none of the hoax that’s being propounded is actually factually true.

But regardless of that, don’t fall for the conservation bit alone as a way to continue to maintain current levels of prosperity and grow them, because conservation cannot do that.

Related Post: MICHIGAN: one-state recession; Whipping dog of the Democrats