Okay, in case you have been too fascinated by Clinton's mudslinging act to follow the issues, McCain and Clinton have both piped up with plans to give us a break from federal gasoline taxes from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Obama, on the other hand, has declined to support this idea. Where do we then get the money to repair highways, he asks.Â
John McCain today responded to this by labeling Obama insensitive to poor people and out of touch on economic issues. McCain nailed Obama for opposing the gas tax moratorium, a proposal that McCain says will particularly help low-income people who usually have older cars that guzzle more gas. McCain, you just told us that our nation's lower class is banging along in hulking jalopies. That sounded a bit elitist to me....
In the meantime, Americans are beginning to take action on their own to lessen the burden of their gasoline expenses. They are buying more small cars, and fewer big honking SUVS. Small cars are now the largest segment of the U.S. auto market, accounting for 18 percent of new car sales. Last year U.S. consumers bought a record 2.8 million of them, and with sales up 4 percent in the first quarter this year, the record almost surely will be shattered. The American people are absorbing a much needed lesson: that oil addiction is not just awkward and friendly to terrorists, it is also a very expensive dead end. This lesson, if painful enough, may induce them to actually support action to improve the efficiency of our transportation (smaller vehicles, hybrids, plug ins, mass transit). If the federal government steps in, pats us all on the head, and takes away all the burdens of our former folly, where is our motivation to leave the dead end? And then there is the elephant in the room- climate change. "The biggest lie in America politics today is to say you care deeply about global warming and advocate for the price of gas to go down," says Mike Jackson, CEO of the AutoNation car dealer chain. "Those are mutually exclusive concepts."
In my view, both Clinton and McCain are pandering. They both are quite aware the fiscal hole that Bush has dug for the american people, quite aware that you can't repair highways without money, and well aware that they are both pandering. Pandering is how you get elected, they would tell you if they could be honest. As an added bonus, they both get to stick it to Obama because they can portray him as "elitist" and "out of touch", just because he is NOT pandering. It's a win/win!
The economists will tell you however that this no gas tax thing is stupid. How is a temporary response to a permanent problem helpful? What happens on Labor Day when gas prices have gone up another buck per gallon? Well, hint, you are not going to reinstate the gas tax, you are just going to get rid of it PERMANENTLY. There goes one more 80 billion in annual federal revenue, forever. Now how are you going to keep your promise of balancing the federal budget? Well, you are not. But the important thing was getting elected, not telling us a hard truth.
Actually, why should we just get rid of the gas tax? Why not the income tax? Hey, that is much more of a burden to us than the gas tax is, at a lousy 18 cents a gallon. Yeah, get rid of the gas tax, the income tax, and sales tax. Â We can all be happy then. Of course China and Japan, whose willingness to buy our government bonds is funding our budget deficits, will give up on us at that point and our entire economy will collapse, but hey, who cares? At least we won't have any taxes.
I realize that I should be frustrated at Obama for refusing to join the other 2 in this pandering. but somehow, I can't manage it. I find myself respecting him. What is wrong with me? Don't I understand politics?
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Comments: 38
Yeah! Problem solved! That was easy. What's next!
Don't kid yourself, our government is up to their eyeballs in this oil profit corruption. Every time I hear about the oil company profits, I cringe to think about the OIL MAN sitting in the Oval Office, with his feet kicked up on the desk and a fat cigar poked in this mouth, laughing at us. And then recall him telling us it's our fault because we are oil addicted. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
A friend just sent me the following 20-minute video. I'll caveat it by saying that it has some fundamental biases and inaccuracies so that must be considered when evaluating its message. But it does a good job of explaining how we get from resource extraction through production and consumerization to disposal. It shows that we can change our ways.
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
As far as whose pandering and who is not. Well, it's one of the main reasons I support Obama.
If all it means to be an American anymore is to talk and vote for no taxes then very soon we will not have any country anymore or any hope of reviving it.
We need more education in this country, period. If people had the numbers and could understand economics and problems were not disguised in obtuse ways where greedy people could hide their actions of shirking responsibility for participating in the USA, maybe we would have better decisions, more infrastructure, and competent people in office, instead of a thinly veiled mafia pompously playacting like a cross between the pope and the founding fathers.
I expect that trying to set up talks with Ahmadinejad and talking with him is going to be an extreme waste of time at a time when the US needs to have a President focusing on real issues that need attention and are not a waste of time.
I do not disagree with his idea of holding a summit with all the Middle East leaders and trying to give them a vision of what the region should be aiming for, and what our concerns are, and maybe bounds. Not so much to change the situation, but the world needs to be educated on what everyone's positions are.
Right now because the US is the only country transparent enough to talk and strong enough to act, and since our actions have been sending a mixed message we look like the bad guys. We should not be.
If the survival of this country depends on not offending people by not asking
them to pay taxes we might as well just call the whole thing off anyway.
I am not sure what is the best thing to do about this. Honestly, I do not
see why someone who does not have to work for a living and makes
their money from investments should pay less taxes on what is
essentially their income. On the other hand, we should be giving
incentives for people to invest and save and people on fixed
incomes need their incomes also.
He is making sense to me ... what about you?
John McCain has recently gone on a 'tour to appease the african-americans in the poor neighborhood' where he has been pandering like no other Republican before him.
I wrote about it in detail @ SENATOR MCCAIN TAKES ROAD LESS TRAVELED by Republicans
Imagine an ultra-rich White elitist who goes into poor rural black neighborhood and presumes to tell them he has the answers to their plight in life, if only they will vote for him. He presumes to know their pain, their troubles and has the solutions.
I explain it much better in the above post, if you're interested.
This article represents my honest opinion on this single example of the gas tax. However, I will not argue that Obama is totally immune to the pressure to pander that exists out this this election season. There may be other examples in which he has been less resistant to the pressure to propose a bad policy- I honestly do not believe myself well enough informed to give a categorical opinion on that.
In the interest of honesty, I am an Obama supporter at this time. If Clinton should get the nod, I will support her despite my unhappiness with her gas tax cancellation proposal. McCain? Well, he is just not going to get my vote.
1) Removing the gas tax would help poor people--the gas tax is one of the most regressive forms of taxation.
2) Obama supports a "windfall tax" on oil companies, which goes along the line of thinking that the government should say how much somebody/a company can make, which I fundementally disagree with. That is pandering to people's antipithy for oil companies, doesn't solve anything at all. I don't think they should recive anything in the form of subsidies, but punishing a company for making money.
3) Obama supported SUBSIDIZING coal liqufiaction, which releases ~3 times the amount of CO2 (as well as all other pollutants) than conventional oil. Obvious pandering to the coal lobby. That is the single thing that made me loose trust in Obama.
Q: You favor an increase in the capital gains tax, saying, "I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton, which was 28%." It's now 15%. That's almost a doubling if you went to 28%. Bill Clinton dropped the capital gains tax to 20%, then George Bush has taken it down to 15%.
OBAMA: What I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.
Q: Sen. Clinton, would you say, "No, I'm not going to raise capital gains taxes"?
CLINTON: I wouldn't raise it above the 20% if I raised it at all. I would not raise it above what it was during the Clinton administration.
Q: "If I raised it at all". Would you propose an increase in the capital gains tax?
CLINTON: You know, I'm going to have to look and see what the revenue situation is. We now have the largest budget deficit we've ever had, $311 billion. We went from a $5.6 trillion projected surplus to what we have today, which is a $9 trillion debt.
Okay, some wishy wishy answers as usual. don't want to take a position but it's pretty clear that she will raise it by not more than 20%. If you want no tax increase, small government, don't fool yourself and vote republican.
On the issues of taxes, education, and even the war, there is no difference between Obama and Clinton. That's the the natural truth and that is why this race is on identities. The African American vs. the Woman. That's all that is left. Experience? Nobody cares. People want change, so say all the exit polls. Change from what? to what? Nobody really knows. Change from Bush seems to be the consensus. Heck, if McCain throws Bush under the bus like he did on Thursday with Katrina, he can be "agent of change" for 22 years. After all he did McCain/Kennedy, McCain/Feingold, Gang of 14. That is CHANGE! I really mean it. Maybe that is why he wants to get rid of Obama, and run with:
"CHANGE YOU XEROX FROM OBAMA"
What is wrong with wearing a sweater in the winter, i will never know.
By the way, if you are looking for a good novel to read, try Ursula LeGuin's "Lavinia". Sorry to shift gears there, but seeing as you are a novelist. I just finished it and it was one of her best, which is saying alot.
Clinton and Obama will reverse Bush oil policy. Count on it. During Billy's term the oil cartel made noise of a coordinated price spike. All he had to do was suggest opening the reserve and the futures dropped. It will happen again. It is the only way to quickly energize the economy.
And, why in the world do I want to hear Clinton's lies...
Obama is telling it like it is and I hope folks are listening -
Wonderful article, Chris W. Salud.