Letters to the Editor
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George Frost is a Shill for the Clinton campaign
The title says it all.
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They're all sitting in the back room laughing
I can just see Joan Walsh and the editors in the back office chuckling and chortling. Whoo Wee look at them rubes...we shore riled them up.. 18 pages of comments on a bullshit non issue. If we publish outrageous crap ...they will respond. No more money from me Joan..maybe when it hits the bottom line.
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royrapoport @ 7:14 pm
This Is Silly
I just did the math. I'm in the sweet spot for this, I suppose -- I have an 80 mile round-trip commute every day, for a total of about 400 miles a week, and my car gets 21.8MPG. This means on a weekly basis, I use 18.35 gallons of tax. At around $4/G (bay area, California), this means I spend $73.40/week on gas. And at $.184/G savings, this means I'd save $3.38/week -- or about 5%. Of course, if we were to use IRS mileage rates -- $.505/mile -- I'm actually paying about $202/week in gas, wear-and-tear, etc, and I'd still only save $3.38/week -- about 1.6%.
You know what? That's not going to make my life better. At all. I'd really much rather spend this money on infrastructure. And that's assuming that we actually get the $.184/G savings, whereas the author said that a nickel/G would be pretty good -- about $.92/week savings. Why are we still arguing that this would make people's lives so amazingly better?
Ok Braniac, now use your narrow math to calculate the savings of a trucker transporting produce from California to New York or a package comming from UPS or the money saved by a cab driver or the savings for a local police force...
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Golly, Thanks for the $20!
Assuming the "holiday" works as well as the Illinois holiday might have worked, we can expect 60% of Senator Clinton's predicted $30 savings, right? That amounts to about $20, spread out over the entire summer! I'm poor but not stupid. I'd rather know that the bridge that I drive over every day is not going to fall down.
By the way, at least 230 prominent economists of all stripes have joined Obama in calling Clinton's and McCain's idea a very bad one:
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM43_080502_list_gastax.html
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Let's Suspend All Taxes Indefinitely!
And what an economic stimulus that would be! Think of it, the whole federal budget, not just 9% of it, being borrowed from China and Japan! Whoohoo, let the good times roll! Sounds like a plan! Since we're voyaging on the Titanic, so let's party hardy! And when crude hits $240 a barrel and gas is $8.00 a gallon a year from now, we can start sell off the country a state at a time to keep with the beat. Please, we a national priority list of disposable states. Maybe Senators Clinton and McCain could help develop one. The Canadians may be interested in buying North Dakota, which wouldn't be much of a loss, as American seem to moving out in droves anyway. Alaska could be sold back to the Russians at a substantial profit. Many in Vermont (or is it New Hampshire?) want to secede, so let'em...for a price. Mexico wants Arizona, the Spaniard may want Florida...but I say we keep the sun-belt states for last.
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A moot point
Despite the fact that most economists think this is a bad idea (greater use of a commodity where production is fixed or declining = higher prices, for starters), the gas tax holiday/windfall tax is a moot point. George Bush will never sign it into law, and Hillary Clinton knows it. If she doesn't, she shouldn't be in the race in the first place.
So, yes, she is pandering and promising nothing.
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:::wobbity-wobbity:::
I was going to hold off on the accusations of this being a shameless pro-Hillary rant. After all, the apples to orange comparisons, straw-man arguments and magical thinking-oh! I'm sorry-"optimism" may seem a true revelation to the author who fails to closely examine his own case.
Then I get to that petulant, baiting little line at the end. Where is Obama's optimism? hee hee snark snark
In cases like this, where there is data than can be analyzed and hard and fast political realities to consider, the "optimism" that you are describing is delusional. Your passage of initiatives which have already been well debunked here, would never happen anyway.
Go ahead and send Hillary's plan complete with winfdfall profit tax to The Idiot Child-Emperor's desk. Here is a direct quote from his veto press conference:
Today I vetoed a bill sent to me by congress which proposes to provide nominal relief to our people at the expense of companies which are already suffering from the high costs of foreign oil. While I support the Gas Tax Holiday proposed by Senator McCain, I can in good concious support a bill which put undue burden on our ability to produce oil domestically.
I need congress to reconvene and send me a good bill. One which allows Americans to save at the gas pump, without jeopardizing one of our economy's most vibrant sectors. I need congress to protect us against the cost of foreign oil. And so I propose that we replace the so-called Windfall Profit Tax with legislation which will allow drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve....
The temporary tax suspension will not be passed in any responible form. Even if it were, the savings would be little more than the throwing of loaves during the Roman gladiator spectacles. Crumbs to the masses while the empire burns.
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Heh, it's obvious who doesn't like the idea of a gas holiday
1) Economists (well-paid, no doubt) hate it. But they aren't directly affected like truckers are.
2) Liberal Elites -- who get their ideas from (1). And they can easily afford higher prices anyway.
3) Pro-Obama Blacks. But they're mostly urban dwellers who take public transport, so they aren't directly affected either and can take their cues from (1) and (2).
Economists hate it because "it sends the wrong message". They say that we should have higher taxes to encourage energy conservation. They conveniently do not mention that the whole US economy has evolved for decades around cheap energy. Raise the price of energy high enough, fast enough, and you do not give the economy time to adapt. You kill it.
This is something the people who are directly affected understand. They want more energy-efficient vehicles -- they just can't buy them now. They want to move closer to their workplace or to areas that offer public transportation -- they just can't move now. They need time to adapt. That's why it's called a tax holiday. Not a repeal of the gas tax.
But the (1) and (2) -- in their great wisdom -- believe that the "rabble" is stupid and will never change unless they are forced to change. And so we must make them pay more and feel the pain. Only then will they do what they should be doing. Talk about Liberal Fascism...
Obamabots are so enlightened.