Does Everyone Agree that The Gas Tax Suspension is a Gimmick?

Just how dumb do Clinton and McCain think we are? Yes, it sounds good. So did getting a ticket on The Titantic did in April of 1912. Just think about it for a few minutes - it does get that much money back in our pockets, it actually costs us money elsewhere. What good does it do? It gives us some sort of consolation I presume but I think the name for that kind of consolation is placebo.

Thomas Friedman over at The New York Times sounds even grumpier than I do:

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.

And now for the scarier things this chatter about suspending the gas tax covers:

But here’s what’s scary: our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Are you sitting down?

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

For the blather about Obama being elitist, give him credit for not talking down to us and not treating us like boobs.