Letters to the Editor
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psycho-beaver
LeCastrata, the franocphile corporate whore wannabe, says the gas holiday is a psychological benefit. I checked my old Buick; there's no psycho input, only a gas tank. You know gas first hand, Beaver. It's what you post, reeking of hydrogen sulphide. The bitch has passed pandering and is streetwalking. Ain't no one stopping to pick up that has-been pander bear in the fishnet stockings.
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Salon's "writer bio" versus the reality of the writer's bias
HERE IS SALON'S 'WRITER BIO' AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE:
blockquote
"About the writer"
George Frost is an attorney who lives in Berkeley, California. At his former law firm he represented Alaska, Louisiana and other states in major tax and royalty litigation against oil companies, and represented the state of Hawaii in an antitrust case against Chevron and other firms accused of gasoline price fixing. He currently serves as general counsel at CivicActions LLC, and is counsel to several other tech and green energy companies in various stages of development."
HERE IS THE REAL SCOOL ABOUT GEORGE FROST:
• George Frost already made this argument on Talking Points Memo:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/05/obamas-gas-tax-logic-holiday-a.php
• Frost also saw fit to copy and paste his blog here:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/03/mich_fla_dilemma_consumes_demo.html
#&149; As of Feb. 7 George Frost had donated $250 to the Hillary Clinton campaign:
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?zip=94705&last=Frost&first=George
• This was later updated to George Frost having donated $400 to the Hillary Clinton campaign:
http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=Frost&fname=George
HERE IS GEORGE FROST'S PERSONAL BLOG AND BIO:
http://www.civicactions.com/blog/george_frost
http://www.civicactions.com/people/georgefrost
A RECENT EXCERPT FROM FROST'S BLOG:
"The Democrats are up to their eyeballs in alligators these days. Obama says he has won more states and racked up more delegates and raw vote totals, and so it would be “undemocratic” for superdelegates to award the nomination to Clinton even if he has failed to clinch the 2,025 delegates needed for victory. Obama makes this fairness argument while at the same time trying to block the staging of new primary contests in Florida and Michigan, important swing states that may determine the outcome of the general election on November. Obama appears ready to poison the well if he does not get the nomination." [emphasis added]
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If Obama is right, why not raise the gas tax?
Obama's position on the gas tax sounds like the ECON 101 voice of reason: the inelasticity of supply will prop up the total cost of gasoline. Any tax cuts will go to the oil/gas producers as additional profit, without dropping the price to consumers. This conclusion suggests that the total price is also inelastic. The only variable is the portion of the total price going to taxes.
If Obama's conclusion is correct, why not raise the gas tax?
If the total price of gas price really is inelastic, the oil/gas producers would absorb a tax increase, adding to federal highway funds without hurting the consumer. Given their record profits, the oil companies can certainly afford to absorb a tax increase more than the consumer can.
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Elitest Love
Love all the elitists simply in love with a regressive tax like gasoline tax. The poorer you are, the more a gasoline tax cut helps, the wealthier you are the less a gasoline tax cut helps - just the kind of thing elitests are oblivious to.
I have an idea, how about for those who say an 18 cents saving is inconsequential, voluntarily paying an extra 18 cents. Hell since you don't really care, pay a buck more. You can afford it, right?
Hope and change. Thats a laffer, hope for cheaper cappuchinos and more storage space on Facebook accounts while making sure there is no extra "change" for the poor.
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Retreatist rub
Economics by George Frost from the land of the lost.
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Raising Gas Taxes
The price is fairly inelastic in the marketplace, and if you s l o w l y raised gas taxes the overall impact probably wouldn't be felt much by consumers (or would be swamped by slowly-increasing gas prices, as global demand increases while daily supply fails to keep pace). The oil companies wouldn't like it though, as it would almost certainly erode their profits, so don't look for that to happen in our lifetimes.
The price is gonna go up anyhow over the next decade. Might as well get people used to it now, so they can make decisions which will help insulate them from the certainty of high prices going forward. It could also help fund alternative transportation infrastructure in the process.
We should have started doing this in the '70s, after the initial oil embargo, when it was clear we were already too dependent on imported oil. As Winston Churchill said, America will eventually do the right thing after having exhausted every other option.
And before some idiot shrieks that I "hate the poor" because I advocate raising gas taxes, I also advocate lowering income taxes on the poor, expanding unemployment insurance, allowing low-income folks to write-off local sales taxes (an odiously regressive form of taxation which serves no social benefit when applied indiscriminately across all goods), and pursuing an industrial policy that would help to ensure anyone who's willing to work can find a decent paying job. All of this would do a lot more to help America - especially folks who work for a living - than a stupid gas tax holiday.
In contrast to the Clintons, who were gleefully happy to export good paying American jobs to any collection of sweatshops calling itself a nation, under the banner of "Free Trade". More like, "No dictator left behind." Millions of jobs were destroyed in the process, and consumer debt skyrocketed as a result. Hillary Antoinette had no problem stealing the working man's cake. The fact that she's now offering us a few stale crumbs in return is infuriating.
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Something's wrong with this picture
Let's see. Out of a couple hundred posts, 95% are anti-Hillary, but when I look at the electorate in the country, it's revealed that a small majority of democrats have voted for Hillary over Obama. That's a surprise, if you thought you were getting the real low-down from all these yelping, whining, scatter-brained Hillary-haters. Where did nearly all of you get your Hillary-hate? Didn't you get if from mainstream-media? You bet your ass you did. That's your real speed, you silly shits.