Clinton's Gas Tax Plan Called 'Ineffective', 'Shortsighted'

The Washington Post published yet another article today showing the negative reactions to Hillary Clinton's plan to suspend the federal gas tax.

A growing chorus -- including a top congressional Democrat -- labeled Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's proposal for suspending the federal gasoline tax ineffective and shortsighted yesterday, even as she continued to paint Sen. Barack Obama as insensitive to drivers' woes for not endorsing the plan.

Yesterday, HuffPost's Sam Stein published a comprehensive article about how Clinton has nonexistent expert support for the plan:

Surely, however, there must be someone out there not associated with a politician or a candidate who supported the idea of a gas tax reprieve -- especially if, as Clinton suggests, it would be paid for by an excess profits tax on oil companies.

I emailed Howard Wolfson, Clinton's spokesperson, asking him to put me in touch with an economic or environmental analyst who favored his boss' plan. He never wrote back.

So I took the task upon myself. I would call experts from all sides of the ideological aisle to get a sense of where the debate stood. In the end, every single analyst I surveyed judged the gas tax holiday proposal to be, roughly speaking, a silly, superfluous, or outright pandering idea.

Comments

[imusintheevening]

Ineffective

shortsighted

pandering

idiotic

pathetic

simplistic

republicanesque

desperate

foolish

symptomatic

[ThunderclapNewman]

Hillary in ten simple words.

Thanks for being so succinct.

[CarlsV]

Hummmmmm

I think he's describing the Bj'er!

[grinreaper]

i think MCCain will use all of thosewords in the fall debates with shrillary
right before he stomps her in the election

[findingthetruth]

Ineffective +Shortsighted = Gimmick

[Truthfighter1]

No matter who the Dem candidate is in Nov. , Dems will win hands down to Mc Bush i promise you this. If the Repub's get a chance to elect another Conservative Supreme court justice ladies you can kiss Roe vs Wade goodbye, as well as affirmitive action.
When we get to the real issues in Novemeber America will wake up from their slumber.

[CarlsV]

"When we get to the real issues in Novemeber America will wake up from their slumber."

What slumber?

The Dems have out raised the repugs $10 to $1.

They have come out to vote at an almost 3 to 1 clip over repugs (and it's been that way since day one of the primary's).

[CarlsV]

I don't think huffy likes Hillary!

[CarlsV]

"Clinton's Gas Tax Plan Called 'Ineffective', 'Shortsighted'"

Yeah but did anyone sniff her chair seat?

[willyloman]

Talk about elitist, Hillary says ” and you know what? rich people…God Bless Us. We deserve all the opportunities to make sure our country and our blessings continue to the next generation­.”

She is promising the wealthy elite class that she will not treaten their wealth or the way government works to help them accumulate more.

And if it wasn't for the MSM's desire to protect the status quo, this story would be everywhere by now.

see the video of it....

http://willyloman.wordpress.com/

[YY2H8]

And when discussing the poor, rural, traditiona­lly-minded Democrats who fell for her good ol' gal show, she is quoted as saying "Screw 'em!'

Bless the rich, screw the poor. Yep, her policy in a nutshell.

[DavidK08]

If the vote to go into Iraq were happening now, the same people defending this would defend her vote for war.

[anticon]

You have to wonder if they stand for anything.
As wrong as I believe McCain and those who support him are at least they believe in the war and Reaganomics.
With Clinton and those supporting her who knows what they will flip flop on next?

[YY2H8]

WOW - this really sums it up PERFECTLY -

"This is how you get hoodwinked. They pick your pocket and give you the jingling change.

Everyone vulnerable enough to get enchanted with the sound of the jingling change goes away happy with the gift.

This is why Hillary is supported most vehemently by the undereduca­ted."

Thanks for the quote, LeeinJax!

[MPeter]

Hillary and MCcain just do not get the dynamics of the modern economy. They are too old and too immersed in Washington politics that they really have no clue how the real world works. It is not just their age, it is how disconnected from reality they are.

[Truthfighter1]

What did you expect of course he's tumbling, but how come he's not gone yet? You people just can't figure out can ya?

GOP, Hillary , McCain, Rev Wright, MSM, can't take him down, pretty soon they are going to realize that this man is the Truth.

You can't stop a movement.

[DavidK08]

The high road is a tough one some times and he is doing it well. One of his biggest hurdles is the low road of others. It is much, much much easier to talk about tax holidays, if they are going to happen or not, if they are doable or a good idea or not, than it is to do what is right.

Yet he does and he keeps on beating the establishment.

[Bibbo]

Hilary Clinton will become whatever you want her to be if you have something she wants. This is the Clinton way. Its something they do better than most because they do it to a much greater degree than other politicians and its what they think about all the time. She now is seen on Fox news and has made nice with republican senators over the last several years....s­he is still underneath it all the same self righteous self appointed moral arbitor that gave the insulting speech at her graduation at Wellesly and is a committed socialist who believes in redistribution of wealth.She has a very low opinion of other people and an inflated opinion of herself and Billy boy. Others who have wealth are "bad" and must be forced to give it away to the poor masses of humanity that she will protect. This policy proves her moral superiority and justfies her to do anything to get elected. Hillary...­wake up...when you fiddle with things you dont understand you change human behavior in ways you cant predict or control. Marxism does not create a just or fair or happy society. Please just take your 100 million dollars and Billy boy and go far away and be quiet. Please just do it.

[steveflos]

The "??" in my previous post was a "Euro" sign.

[eljodio]

"Ineffective" and "shortsighted," aren't those the virtues of some of Clinton's touted political consitutencies, the people who Obama is having difficulty connecting with, and the very same people who don't, won't, can't and when offered the possibility refuse to see the broader picture, the wider perspective and their place in it? Aren't these the same people who blindly betray their own interests and vote republcan over values, thereby aligning themselves with bible thumpers and Wall street investors because they are Christian and to be Christian is to be American? Ineffective and shortsighted, doesn't that pretty much sum up the Bush and Clinton war in Iraq?

[PierreLeClerke]

Tell Senator Obama, Get ahead of this in a true Leadership role. Sponsor a bill to remove control of the SPR from the executive branch and create an independent energy commission now.
Said commission will have broad powers to oversee and control the offering of 20% of the SPR to domestic refiners at $45.00 per barrel. Immediately starting competition in the cartel crude market.

Look, when OPEC announces a production increase of 500,000 -1,000,000 barrel per day increase, prices drop at the NYMEX by as much as 10% per barrel within 24 hours. check that fact for yourself with the E.I.A. website. 20% of the SPR is 140,000,000 barrels of Light sweet crude. OPEC supplies the U.S. market less than 5 million barrels per day. Do you think they will suddenly stop selling crude to the world market and turn off the spigot because we create competition. They will sell crude at $45 just like they sell it at $118. They have to sell crude, its all they have to sell. We now could put them over their own barrel.
This president will not do it because his oil masters would whack him. So we must remove that power from his hands. DO IT!
This Energy commission would also offer and promote real concentrated incentives for developing new independent energy technologies now. as well as be the centerpiece for energy research for the Nation. Save ourselves, save the Planet! H2O Power Now!

[steveflos]

Lemme see, gas prices are at around $3,75 per gallon, right? In Germany my local Shell wants €1,50 per liter.
One gallon has 3.7 liters and €1,50 is $2.31.
In other words, one gallon costs around $8,77 in Germany, so we would be quite glad to have your "outrageous" gas prices... just to put a perspective on the discussion.

[drzoon]

well then.... hopefully germans are buying their homes an hour commute away from work because housing was/is so out of wack. (before now, housing pushed people away from their jobs because of high prices. now they are just stuck because their houses have lost so much value... you can't move/sell)

anyway... do you know the average MPG (MPL) in european cars?

this whole country is so out of wack... and now a gas tax holiday?

[MKJeeves]

Danke schon. A lot of people in the US don't realize how low gas prices are here compared to most other places in the world.

[vippy]

Your comment is moot due to the fact we are in the United States and not in Europe.
I lived 24 years in Germany, never needed a driver's license nor a car EVER. In fact, I got
home quicker by tram/subway than when my husband picked me up with his car.
Besides, Europeans make more money and they can write off their way to work with their
tax return.

[imusintheevening]

The bulk of the price in Europe is taxes. Our fed tax should be 20 times higher $3.60 not $0.18.

[grinreaper]

just cuz you live in socialist nannystate
dont complain to us

[stevietheman]

Hillary = PANDER BEAR

[DocGreen]

On Paul Krugman as Clinton operative; Note that Paul has not weighed in on this. For years he has railed on about the benefits of higher gas prices, has criticized Bush for this kind of wrongheaded, short sighted pandering.

Where is he now? I suppose criticizing Clinton would violate some agreement he has with the Clintons.

[robodweeb]

Krugman has said that Obama is right on this issue.

[dm92]

Look, we all have our biases - I'm not mad at him

Obama '08

[grinreaper]

that means obombas gota be waaaayyyy wrong