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At long last the price of gas has started to decline. Small business owners that require gasoline to be successful, such as my local flower and food delivery services, the guy that mows my lawn, and the fine people that clean my house as well as hardworking Americans that face a long daily commute because a good job is not available close to home, are cautiously optimistic that they may have a tiny bit of breathing room in the monthly fuel budget.

So what do you do, Federal Government? You decide that now would be a good time to raise gasoline taxes! The argument you make, that our “infrastructure”, the roads, bridges, and whatnot across the country, is aging and requires maintenance. I’m sure, Federal Government, that you must have know before now that the infrastructure required maintenance. After all, you have been maintaining these very items for many decades.

What is the real motive behind this tax? Could it be that you are simply seizing an opportunity? Is your plan to implement a gasoline tax at a time when we Americans may not notice because if the price of gas is falling, who will be the wiser if it falls just a little bit less than it would without you making a grab for as much as you dare while the opportunity presents itself.

Here’s an idea. How about if you, Federal Government, do what every business, nonprofit, and household in these great United States does? How about if you use the money you already have?! How’s that for an idea?

You see it works like this: when you need to allocated increased funds to something, you get those funds from something else. For example, I need dental work, say for a tooth replacement. Tooth implants, which are the treatment of choice for a lost tooth, are not fully covered by my dental insurance with the result that my out-of-pocket expense will be several thousand dollars. In order to pay for this dental care, I must put off for another year replacing the ancient HVAC system in my house. Do you see how that works, Federal Government? I would like to have both a new tooth and a new HVAC. I would even say that I need both. But I can’t have both. I have to make a real honest to God hard choice.

What if you, Federal Government, did the same. Perhaps then you would, as you are fond of saying, “feel my pain.”