Pain At the Pump

-- Troy Kimmel

Olney

•

David Ignatius is right: Gas prices are too low. But Philip Verleger's proposal of an increase in the gas tax of $2 a gallon in 2009, with further increases of another dollar in each of the following three years, is not the shock treatment we need.

In 1980 as an Independent candidate for president I proposed a 50-cent increase in the federal gas tax immediately coupled with a 50 percent cut in federal payroll taxes. Today a "50-50 plan" should be debated in the present presidential campaign. The candidate who steps up to the plate with a call for immediate action would attract millions of us who remain Independents, as well as thoughtful voters of both major parties.

-- John B. Anderson

Washington

The writer is chairman of the board of the Center for Voting and Democracy and a former member of the U.S. House from Illinois.