$1 per fill-up

Yesterday President Biden asked Congress for $10 billion in emergency funds for Ukraine. The money would pay for humanitarian and military support for Ukraine against Russian aggression. More than $4 billion would go to the Pentagon to supplement funds for deployments of U.S. troops to NATO countries and replace weapons the Pentagon has already provided the Ukrainian military, such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank weapons. Another $4 billion would pay for additional humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, including support for refugees who are flooding through the borders of NATO countries on Ukraine’s eastern border.

Ukraine is going to need even more financial and military aid in the coming weeks and months. The refugee crisis in Europe caused by Russia’s invasion is going to cost billions, and nations like Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Germany cannot be expected to shoulder the refugee burden alone.

Biden should act now and propose a patriotic tax to support Ukraine and our European allies against Russia. He should ask Congress to pass a $1 dollar pump tax every time you put gas in your car. It would be easy to implement. Pumps could be programmed to start the total of each gas sale at $1 instead of zero. Every dollar raised at the pump would go toward fighting Russian aggression. This isn’t only Ukraine’s and Europe’s fight. It is a fight by civilized nations against the uncivilized war-mongering of Vladimir Putin and Russia. We cannot discount the possibility that Putin’s attack on Ukraine could turn into the horror of World War III.

Biden should make the case to his fellow citizens that either we pay a little now, or we will end up paying a whole lot later in blood as well as treasure.

Inflation is already causing higher prices at the pump. Americans don’t like it, but they are getting used to it. Paying another dollar every time they go to the gas station might be hard on Americans’ wallets, but it’s not anywhere near as hard as the Russian bombs and rockets that are falling on Ukrainians.

Nobody is dying in the United States…yet. It’s not going to kill us to pay a little more for gas and it will help save millions of Ukrainians and other Europeans from horrors that so far we are only having to watch on our television screens.

It’s time to end the fantasy that we can just sit here and let Ukrainians try to save their country and the West from Putin’s aggression without suffering some pain ourselves. We can’t. It’s going to cost us, and Biden should be blunt about it. We should be lining up to pay this tax to help our allies stop Putin in his tracks.