Context matters in survey questions (Americans are cautious ...):
Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to a higher federal gasoline tax, but a significant number would go along with an increase if it reduced global warming or made the United States less dependent on foreign oil, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The nationwide telephone poll, conducted Wednesday through Sunday, suggested that a gasoline tax increase that brought measurable results would be acceptable to a majority of Americans.
...
Eighty-five percent of the 1,018 adults polled opposed an increase in the federal gasoline tax, suggesting that politicians have good reason to steer away from so unpopular a measure. But 55 percent said they would support an increase in the tax, which has been 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, if it did in fact reduce dependence on foreign oil. Fifty-nine percent were in favor if the result was less gasoline consumption and less global warming. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
I wonder what the results would have been if people were told that a gas tax might reduce global warming, dependence on foreign oil, congestion, and local air pollution. Plus raise revenue for research into alternative fuels (or raise revenue to offset lower income taxes [or raise revenue to pay off those maturing 10 year T-notes so we don't have to continually refinance our national debt because we stopped selling the 30 year T-bond in 2001 because we had a temporary budget surplus, gasp]).
