A gas tax would turn Trump into President Donald Macron

Admittedly, the American situation is different from that of France. Our economy is more dynamic, and we’re riding on what seems like the froth of a long recovery and economic boom that has brought the unemployment rate way down, and wages up. The French economy is far more sclerotic, and far more protectionist. What France lacks in dynamism during good times is traded for more security during rough ones.

But this regressive fuel tax increase would come after Trump had passed a major tax reform that slashed corporate taxes. Yes, there is some evidence that these slashed rates have goosed the economy, and contribute to the general uptick. But the benefits are also concentrated among wealthy and upwardly mobile people who run their income through corporate structures, often with their family names attached to them. Notably it is those voters who find Trump most repulsive and who have been abandoning the GOP for the Democrats since his nomination.

The Trump revenue legacy is becoming almost a caricature of the country-club Republicanism he ran against. It is relatively easy to avoid the increased prices on certain appliances due to Trump’s trade wars. It would be impossible to avoid the costs that a gas tax would impose, which would fall disproportionately on the people Trump claims to serve. And it would do so at a time when gas prices are already rising quickly.