We Americans need to expand our idea of what a tax is. Some may contend that an expenditure  is only a tax when government labels it as such and there's a rate or assessment attached to it. Those people are sophists. Provided that it is not a penalty for an illegality, any government-caused expense that must be paid should be regarded as a tax. When government policies make the prices of essentials higher than they would be in a free market, we're talking taxes. We hear journalists talk about rising oil prices as a tax hike.  If such prices are due to government energy policies, like not drilling in ANWR or not building the Keystone XL pipeline, then the journalists are right, the higher prices are a tax. Whether he understands it or not, President Obama was talking about tax hikes in a videotaped interview with the San Francisco Chronicle when he said: Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket ... Coal-powered plants, you know,...(Read Full Post)