Letters to the Editor
-
Hillary Knows Better
She's just being dishonest. But Hillary being who she is, not many people will care. They know she doesn't feel the need to be honest. I guess honesty is now "elitist" too.
-
What a Real Leader Needs to Do
Someday, this country will get a real leader who will share some unpleasant facts about this country with its citizens. One of those facts is that U.S. oil prices have been suppressed for the past 60 years and the country no longer has the clout to keep prices down unless it wants to start WWIII (or WWIV depending upon who you talk to).
A real leader will tell its citizens that the country faces obstacles that will either break it or catapult it to new heights, and that a lot of sacrifice by everyone will be required to achieve the latter. We need to make petroleum obsolete and transform ourselves from the most wasteful country on the planet to the most efficient. I personally know I can do better, but these are times where we don't have the luxury of relying on "free market solutions."
If we can put a man on the moon, we can fix this situation, but we can't do it and try to police the world at the same time.
-
Threatening Iran doesn't help oil prices either
Other commodities don't show the same speculative push that oil does (gold has fallen some recently), which it would if a falling dollar were the primary reason for speculation. That suggests that another factor, perhaps a fear of supply interruption, is playing on the oil market. Something to think about when presidential canidates are outdoing each other with threats to obliterate Iran, not to mention the talk about Iran arming Iraqi militias.
-
Funding Terrorists
In addition to all of the obvious points that have already been made, like "it won't save anyone any money", there's another issue. Reducing taxes will not mean the price at the pump will go far lower, just that oil companies will pocket the difference. Given the history of some oil-producing nations as sponsors of terrorism, perhaps Hillary Clinton should rethink any alternative that might increase their profits. Just a thought.
-
ONLY IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY DO YOU HAVE TO DEFEND A TAX CUT
Look, no one is claiming this price break will fix the oil problem. But it takes congress months to form their committees and let every politician give their input, etc. (especially in an election year) before a bill even comes up for a vote. So we can spend those months just waiting or we can spend them waiting but with a small break in the price of gas. I know which one I would rather do.
The fact that Obama doesn't appreciate this is just another example of his elitism and highlights yet again that he does not have the experience to lead a nation.
-
This is a last ditch effort
Of all-out populism; the thing is, if Clinton's gambit works, I think she's doomed her candidacy either way. Moderates are going to be turned off by this kind of transparent garbage.
-
sonofloud
So we can spend those months just waiting or we can spend them waiting but with a small break in the price of gas.
Unless you're a gas station owner, you're probably not going to see any change at all. Heck, the way prices are going, they might still be higher than they are now and all we'll have to show for it is more national debt and fewer people working the jobs those taxes would have funded. Great idea when we've got a highway and bridge infrastructure problem in this country.
-
Abstinence-only "education"
and a whole host of other Bush scourges continue because he serves fundamentalist Christians instead of the American people, regardless of what the science suggests.
What the hell is Hillary's excuse?
-
Alternatives to cheap populism
Perhaps you won't win a primary battle in Indiana by telling voters that "during my presidency, you can expect to pay more for gasoline than you do now, because that is the only way we can truly break free from our addiction to oil," just as you weren't going to win a primary battle in Ohio by lecturing voters on the benefits of free trade.
Well, yes and no. Cheap populism (which is what Clinton is practicing — stock tirades against "elitists," bankers, big business, and so on, combined with pie-in-the-sky promises) holds up about as well as it sounds. There are indeed other things one can say and still win hearts and minds (and votes).
If nothing else, an aspiring national leader could point out the very things that Andrew Leonard does — that the people whose job it is to predict the future are predicting, with their buys, a future in which there is no new oil.
Indianans gets it about guns. Tell them that we're staring down the double barrels of a weak dollar and a world run out of oil, and standing still waiting for the trigger to be pulled hoping that we can stay where we are and somehow avoid any pain is the ultimate foolhardy act. Point out that it's not just them but their kids who are being thrust, front and center, into the path of the shotgun blast of economic breakdown.
Then tell them that the alternative is to use our heads and get out of harm's way — and show them how.
Indianans aren't dumb. Like most Americans, they're stubborn, emotional, disturbingly ignorant, and don't want to have to change. But fundamentally they'll get it if you tell them.
And the thing is, they also get it — sooner or later — when they've been had. So promises like the tax holiday are only going to backfire.
-
@sonofloud
Funny spin.
Obama voted for gas tax relief in Illinois in 2000. It didn't work out so hot (e.g. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gca54s0LCP-1CIz0sSK5QWjOCzbgD90DKAK80). So maybe Obama learned from a previous mistake (something often referred to as experience).
Taxes on consumption of things with external costs (e.g. gas) are the least worst, most economically efficient taxes around. If you want economic relief, there are plenty of other ways (get your check yet?). But why support the "maximize demand, minimize supply, and buy the rest from people who hate us" energy policy that we currently have?