Drop The 9

According to our illustrious government, the price we pay for gasoline breaks down something like this – per dollar spent:

37 cents for the crude oil, from mashed-up dinosaurs

36 cents for state and federal taxes, to support our way of life

14 cents for distribution (from the field to your Ford)

13 cents for refining and processing costs
As you can see, taxes on gasoline cost about the same as does the crude oil. When gas was cheap (29.9 per gallon for folks my age), nine point nine cents of the price per gallon was for taxes. The other twenty cents went for the crude oil, refining, and distribution. Those days have long passed, and the need for a “point nine” has gone the way of the dinosaurs who gave their lives so we could drive to the local WalMart. I vote that we drop the 9, and simply have a non-fractioned price per gallon for gasoline. To give the tax-masters an incentive, we could even curve the current prices up to the next dollar, and let the suits have that point one percent to play with.