Petrol is already around $7-$8 a gallon in the UK and people are coping with it fine. Just buy more efficient cars, its not f**king rocket science.
Exactly. You could eliminate the regressive ss and medi taxes with the revenue. net effect to consumer and gov = 0, but the difference is that demand would drop, forcing oil lower, and reducing the trade deficit, and helping the dollar. Actually, Al Gores carbon tax effectively does this, but justifies it on the basis of ecology, not economy. To me, if the people will buy it on that basis, it works just as well, but if we don't do something to dramatically reduce consumption and the deficits quickly, the dollar will collapse.
Unfortunately we still have high Income Tax, VAT, Stamp Duty, Council Tax, Corporate Tax, Dividend Tax, National Insurance, Land Duty, Air Travel Duty, Inheritance Tax, etc..... Governments rarely use one tax to slash another, even when they say they'll do it.... UK has had the fastest rising taxes since the war yet income tax RATES actually fell....
Well what could they do? Make oil out of air? Invade yet another country and totally screw up? Oil is more expensive than it needs to be because of your 'wonderful' govt. Just buy more efficient cars and stop pumping hundreds of billions of $ into a region that hates you and wants you dead.