Are you for math, or are you for Hillary?
May 2nd, 2008
“Are they for the oil companies, or are they for you?” – Hillary Clinton, using her innate powers of economic idiocy to question the patriotism of Senators that won’t vote for her gas tax holiday.
Popularity: 36% [?]
Seriously, how does she get away with that? In no way, shape or form does lowering the tax on a product hurt the producers and retailers of the product. A gas tax holiday will be a huge windfall for the oil companies, if only because all of us will be able to buy more gas, even if we assume that dumping the tax will actually make gas 18¢ a gallon cheaper (because it wouldn’t… eventually the market would adjust and wipe out at least some of the savings).
Of course Clinton’s not that stupid, she’s just pandering to our stupids.
For her it’ll be a win, win, win situation. She scores cheap pandering points now, her gas company executive buddies (who pay the campaign bills) will make more money this summer, and then she’ll be on teevee in the fall, flaccidly berating those same execs for gouging and profiteering.
Christ, I just read further into the article and found this nugget: “Clinton has proposed making up the lost revenue by imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies.”
She’s proposing that we rob Peter to pay, well… Peter. Paul doesn’t even have to get involved in this one. It’s so simple that it just might work. Except that it won’t.
Unless you’re into that sort of thing… but it still won’t work.