Updated on Feb. 20 at 1:32 am ET : Republican Wyoming Governor Matt Mead signed the state’s gasoline tax into law last Friday, raising the gas tax ten cents which is now higher than the federal gasoline tax. Wyoming’s gasoline tax is 24 cents per gallon, and the federal gasoline tax is only 18.4 cents per gallon.
msnbc’s Lawrence O’Donnell gave Democrats some tough love in his latest Rewrite segment. He called Democrats “enablers” for allowing Republicans to “maintain their insane, rabidly anti-tax facade.”
“Republicans get to oppose every tax increase of every kind all the time, not because they think that the government should have no tax revenue, but because they think it is not their job to provide tax revenue for the government,” he said. “And Democrats readily fall into this trap, not because Democrats are weak, but because Democrats are responsible when it comes to taxation, and Republicans know they can rely on Democrats being responsible.”
Look to Wyoming “to see a world with no Democrats,” said O’Donnell. Breaking from that norm, the Republican-dominated Wyoming legislature plans to raise the gas tax by 10 cents—more than double the Bill Clinton-era increase in the federal gasoline tax. The state’s Senate passed the bill on Thursday in a 18-to-12 vote.
O’Donnell predicted the state would “survive” its gas tax increase. “But, don’t expect Washington Republicans to following Wyoming Republicans and rewrite their tax policy to include the principle of responsibly raising taxes when needed,” warned O’Donnell. “Washington Republicans will never have to do that, thanks to their enablers, the responsible Democrats.”
Sarah Muller