Hillary: Pump Her Up
Posted on April 29th, 2008 in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
I know I’ve gone round the bend somewhat with my growing disgust with Hillary Clinton, but bear with me just a bit longer. The fight over whether to suspend the U.S. gas tax during the coming summer months is a powerful example of how craven Hillary has become—and how her overweening ambition is exactly what the country doesn’t need right now.
Hillary wants to suspend the federal excise tax of 18.4 cents a gallon for the summer. So does John McCain. It’s a terrible idea. Barack Obama rightly opposes it—and Hillary is trying to demagogue this “issue” just as she did with Jeremiah Wright et al.
“At the heart of my approach is a simple belief,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Middle-class families are paying too much and oil companies aren’t paying their fair share to help us solve the problems at the pump.”
Oh, please. How does this woman keep a straight face when uttering such malarkey?
Why is suspending the gas tax a terrible idea? Well, fiscally it would make no difference to the millions of Americans to whom Hillary is sucking up. As Obama rightly points out, the amount the typical American driver would save from suspending this tax is about $30—these days, around half a tank of gas.
Second, as a matter of policy it’s an even worse idea. The solution to the gas crisis is not to try to make gas cheaper. It’s to encourage Americans to drive less, use more public transportation, drive fewer SUVs, and promote alternative energy. The era of cheap energy is, at least for now, over. Postponing our acknowledgment of that reality will only weaken our country.
Which brings us to the question of leadership. Again: The answer to American problems is not to try to make it easier for Americans to consume more and the consequences be damned. Hillary urging the suspension of this tax is a failure of leadership; it’s like George Bush telling us after 9/11 that the biggest sacrifice Americans needed to make was to keep shopping.
Want to know how silly Hillary’s argument is? Consider this quote from a McCain spokesperson:“It’s clear Barack Obama’s not strong enough to provide immediate relief at the pump, and it shows he doesn’t understand our economy or have the ability to deliver for hard-working Americans,” said Tucker Bounds, a McCain aide.
Not “strong enough” to provide immediate relief at the pump?
(A whopping 30 bucks.)
Obama’s strong enough to try to do better than simply throw crumbs at the voters and hope they eat them up. Hillary Clinton is not. She is, instead, dragging American politics to a base level just at a time when we need serious solutions to difficult problems. But she can only succeed if the rest of us let her.
5 Responses
4/29/2008 1:25 pm
Be prepared to be shocked — I agree completely. She seems determined to alienate even long time loyal supporters like me. Shameful. Pandering, and as you point out, really bad policy.
4/29/2008 2:59 pm
While I concur with most that is said, $30 a week may be a lot of money now to people who are having to choose between eating and heating their homes. And it’s not just the $30 in gas a week, it’s the ridiculous rise in food prices that accompany the increase in gas prices. It would have been better if someone suggested using that gas tax toward finding alternative energy resources.
I agree that Hillary has sunk to the lowest common denominator in this campaign, which is unfortunate because it shadows the good deeds she has done. However, I also believe it is a matter of time before we find all the dirt about how Obama has risen to the top. He may disgust us just as much, or even more. It seems the media has become blinded to “change.”
4/29/2008 3:07 pm
It’s not $30 a week, AC. It’s $30, total. My fault for not including a link (since added).
4/30/2008 8:31 am
I’m with you, RB. I’ve thought for many years that until gas prices became painfully high (ugh, painful gas!), there would be no national movement in a direction that will reduce how much oil and gas we use. I’m disappointed that even with prices above $3.50/gal, the best our “leaders” can do is push for ethanol (taking 25% of the world’s corn crop out of the food supply in the process) and suggest half-assed, stopgap ways to lower the price of gas a smidgen.
(I also had the same reaction as you to Bush’s “go shopping” advice, and lost faith in him as soon as he said it. What a lost opportunity.)
Furthermore, eliminating the gas tax doesn’t even address the problem Clinton notes above. She says: “…oil companies aren’t paying their fair share to help us solve the problems at the pump.” Eliminating the gas tax will not prompt oil companies to somehow chip in on something; if anything, it will simply increase their massive profits, since people will drive more if gas prices are lower. If we want the oil companies to help pay for solutions, whatever that means, then we need to go to the oil companies.
4/30/2008 9:48 am
To Spot On’s point — Clinton is proposing to pay for the tax holiday by hiking taxes on the oil companies.
To the larger point — this is indeed bad policy. But it’s smart politics: the kind of noises that will help with the lower-information voters Hillary has been relying on. I reckon it gives her two points in Indiana and three in North Carolina.
SE