Friedman NYT: Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering.

Dumb as We Wanna Be

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: April 30, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30friedman.html?hp

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.

No, no, no, we’ll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Mrs. Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars — burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering.

.................

you lose.

Sorry it's not the answer you want to hear.

If you buy 15 gallons a week at 18 cents off for 2 months, you'll get $21.60. Enjoy your pizza. Maybe you could buy a bottle of wine and some velveeta cheese.

What the fuck is wrong with America?

be well over 3 dollars, pushing 4. But we'll screw ourselves for that meager discount, as Friedman says. Obama will make a great President.

Thanks for playing.

Of course if you aren't one of the people who loose their jobs why should you care?
:sarcasm:

Reality:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/timquigley/gGCpmr

Gas Holiday? How about we fix the problem instead of pander for votes!
By Tim Q - Apr 28th, 2008

On top of that, reducing the cost of gas will likely increase demand. Increasing demand will likely tighten supply. Tightening the supply will cause the price to increase somewhat thus taking back some of the $50 in tax benefits and giving them to big oil.

Finally, doing this also will cost the US treasury about $10 billion dollars in money that is badly needed to maintain our highway system (remember that bridge that collapsed?).

Americans are suffering due to high costs. But, a 14-week band-aid that will save, at best, a typical American about $50 is not the way to fix this problem. The way to fix this problem is to address the root cause: we have to increase minimum efficiency for automobiles, we have to find alternative sources, we have to find ways to stabilize the regions where oil comes from, and we have to find ways to strengthen the dollar (because oil is priced world wide in dollars and the dollar has lost a great deal of value in recent months).

Now, if we want to help out Americans that are hurting, let's focus a plan on them. How about a tax credit for the those with the lowest incomes? Obama has proposed such a plan. How about a rebate on the gas tax for the first 500 gallons you buy each year rather than every single gallon? Or maybe a tax credit for gas for those under a certain income level?

There's hundreds of ways to address this issue, but a blanket rebate for every gallon of gas sold is the wrong way to go. It is nothing more than pandering for votes while ignoring the real issues.

"Well let me tell you – this isn't an idea designed to get you through the summer, it's designed to get them through an election. The easiest thing in the world for a politician to do is to tell you exactly what you want to hear. But if we want to finally solve the challenges we're facing right now, we need to tell the American people what they need to hear. We need to tell the truth."

More on truth "I voted for an energy bill that wasn't perfect because it made the largest investment in renewable energy in history. Now, Senator Clinton spends a lot of time attacking me for this bill because it also included some tax breaks for oil companies. Well not only did I fight to take these tax breaks away, but what Senator Clinton doesn't tell you is that she voted for a bill just a year earlier that contained three times as many tax breaks for oil companies. Three times! So this is just politics."

OK, Black power.