The slopulist tendency in Democratic politics

[Obligatory prefatory note that if you do not support the Democratic candidate in the Maine Senate general election you are objectively pro-John Roberts.]

This bullshit is everything wrong with making opposing “billionaires” the primary lodestar of progressive policy:

U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner wants to eliminate the federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel, freeze electric rates and fund clean energy developments, as part of his “Take Back American Energy” plan released Friday.

Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins in November, blamed rising energy costs on oil companies, private equity and foreign-owned utilities.

“The solutions are straightforward,” reads Platner’s energy plan. “They simply require the political will: to end big oil’s stranglehold on our energy policy, to slash prices for consumers, and to build the energy of the future.”

A cornerstone of the plan is to cut the 18 cent per-gallon tax on gasoline and 24 cent per-gallon tax on diesel charged by the federal government. Those taxes go to fund U.S. roads and bridges, but Platner said basic transportation infrastructure should be funded by increased taxes on billionaires, rather than regressive sales taxes that hit Maine’s working class.

First of all, you’re sticking it to BIG OIL by…cutting the taxes on their products?

Removing the gas tax doesn't target fossil fuel companies. If anything, it helps them by making it more likely consumers buy gas.

[image or embed]— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) May 11, 2026 at 10:36 AM

This embrace of Trumpian bullshit aside, the larger problem here is the idea that a robust welfare state can be a free lunch funded entirely by taxes on “billionaires.” It can’t. Even if higher marginal rates are part of the mix (as they should be), an expanded welfare state requires taxing the middle class and also almost always requires at least some regressive consumption taxes. In addition, the result of repealing the gas tax won’t be “infrastructure funded through taxes on billionaires,” it will be that the revenue will be replaced by nothing.

This is a very bad trend that will undermine the next Democratic government if it continues, and at least parts of it are being embraced by people who should know better.