Letter: Gas guzzlers are sacred cows to lawmakers

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 2:56 a.m.

Quick! Call the men with the white coats! The inmates are running the asylum!

Here we have politicians on both sides of the aisle calling for repeal of the federal gas tax, which funds highway repair and construction. But nobody dares suggest outlawing the gas guzzlers that use them, all in an effort to pander to the spoiled, selfish and ill-informed owners of such, as well as the big auto companies that make them. This is sheer insanity, in my opinion.

You hear a lot of talk about "the third rail of politics," which used to be Social Security, but it has become the SUV and other gas-guzzling automobiles.

This fetish flourishes in the face of dwindling fossil fuel reserves (it will all run out some day, sooner rather than later) with the very same people who seem to be so worried about the "future" of Social Security to the point of throwing it on the crap table of Wall Street and taking benefits from their grandparents.

Let's face it, the internal-combustion, fossil-fuel-powered personal vehicle (car) is on its way out and "the bridge to the 22nd century" will be crossed, not in Explorers or even Escorts, but in mass transit trains and buses. The sooner Americans realize that the easier the change will be!

DAN OLIVIER

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