American Spectator

    The federal gas tax was first imposed in 1932. It was only 1 cent per gallon, and it was supposed to be temporary. It wasn't. From 1959 to 1981 it stayed at 4 cents a gallon. But in 1982 the federal government got hot for mass transit. Since then the federal gas tax has risen from 4 cents a gallon to 18.4 cents, or 360 percent, the Tax Foundation has noted.

    According to the Energy Information Agency, almost a quarter of the price of a gallon of gas goes to taxes. Refining costs and oil company profits combined make up less than 20 percent. (Those percentages will be slightly smaller now, with prices having risen so fast in the past month.)

    But the EIA does not include some local taxes in that count. The Tax Foundation and the American Petroleum Institute found last fall that taxes accounted for 45.9 cents of the cost of each gallon of gas. That's a United States average, the total differs state to state. It ranged from 26.4 cents in Alaska to 60 cents in California.

    Just three years ago, Congress was considering raising the federal gasoline tax from 18.4 cents a gallon to 24.4 cents. Two years ago, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, proposed raising the gas tax by 5.45 cents a gallon to 23.85 cents. He wanted more money for pork. Now, of course, such a proposal would be political suicide.