“Now the two Washington candidates in the race have been attacking me lately because I don’t support their idea of a gas tax holiday. We’re arguing over a gimmick that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say they did something.”
The same can be said of these silly tax “rebates” that will be arriving in some of your mailboxes the next few weeks. Two questions immediately jump to mind:
1.) How can we reduce our dependence on foreign oil when our government is making it cheaper to purchase?
2.) How can the government afford to give most of us tax rebates when we are in debt by over $9.3 trillion and counting?
Our government does those things because they don’t understand Economics 101 — that if you want to suppress demand for a product, you don’t lower the price, you RAISE it!
Same for those silly, ineffectual tax rebates to “stimulate” the economy. That money would have been better spent creating jobs fixing our roads and infrastructure.
But when you’re in an election year, pandering trumps logic.
And we wind up with dumb policy decisions.
Interesting that the charge against Obama by both McCain and Hillary is that he is not ready to lead. I always viewed a lack of pandering as proof of leadership, not the absence thereof.
This topic is yet another example of the willingness (make that the compulsion) of Clinton and McCain to say ANYTHING to appeal to voters. (Remember Hillary’s proposal for an anti-flag-burning amendment?)
Josh is right on: A true leader tells the people what they SHOULD hear…not what they WANT to hear.
Pandering trumps logic AND leadership.
Hillary’s support for that ridiculous attempt to further suppress our right to free speech (a much more anti-American act than failing to wear a flag lapel pin) has led me to the conclusion that Hillary must have skipped all of her constitutional law classes in law school.
With Machiavelli in mind, perhaps Steve should rethink the structure of his observation in pp2 of his 5/1/08 comment. Nor do I think he was thinkin either of Hitler or the present leader of North Korea , beloved as the were and are by their respective followings.
Steve’s observations regarding supply and demand are correct. The issue is complicated by how tightly entwined our economy is with respect to the use of gasoline. A call for a gas boycott or a ‘no-drive’ day of the week, for example, would bite hard into this economic interdepency. Are we prepared and willing to submit ourselves to such a sacrifice?
The great science fiction author and self-taught ecologist, Frank Herbert, spoke to this in his classic works. Many years before, he recognized petrolum as the fuel for the world’s engine and economy. In his writing, he conjured up the ‘addictive geriatric spice’ melange, it prolonged life, and embued the Spacing Guild’s navigators with the gift of prescience, the ability to enable commerce, at light speed, among the known planets of the universe. Found only on one planet, Arrakis, the planet known as “Dune”. “He who controls the spice, controls the universe.”
And thus….we have arrived.