I Love, I Hate You; Come Here, Go Away!

May 5, 2008

Is this the time to promote extra driving?

A gas tax holiday. Three months of lower gas prices? P-A-R-T-Y!!!

In your dreams; it’s a great election play but at the risk of shitting in your Cornflakes, look at the end game. The tax holiday is woefully short-sighted; the gas tax that funded road and bridge upkeep will go bye-bye: in theory, you’ll pocket $9+ a month but the oil companies will keep on jacking up gas prices at the pump; the consumer won’t ever get the promised relief; the roads and bridges will endure three months of utter neglect; thousands and thousands of highway construction workers will become unemployed; with inflation on the rise (and the Fed has no room left for more interest rate cuts; it’d make inflation worse anyway), and unemployment going up, get ready for Stagflation [remember that?]when the holiday’s over and gas jumps nearly 20 cents a gallon overnight. All for vote pandering. Are John McCain and Hillary Clinton going to hold Town Hall meetings in Minneapolis/St. Paul to say the roads and bridges don’t need to be maintained this Summer?
McCain says a transfer of funds from other budget items can make up for the lost revenue. Really? What discretional part of the federal budget has a surplus these days? Clinton says a Windfall Profits Tax on Big Oil will pay for it.. Will this administration greet any anti-Oil Company legislation with anything but a veto? That’s presuming this Congress has the balls to pass any bill that makes Big Oil pay its fair share. We have a Congress that’s much more interested in what consonant follows somebody’s name. Sadly, it’s party over people.
The “powers that be” will once again go after the Alaska[n] National Wildlife Area Refuge (ANWAR) for “national security” reasons. Yes, the same people that brought you, “And don’t forget, Sherrod Brown is black. There’s a racial component here, too”, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”, “Go fuck yourself”, “I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I’m the decider, and I decide what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense” , “I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans”, “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees” and “My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators [in Iraq].” They promise an itty-bitty, teeny-tiny, insignificant little "footprint" by the oil drillers; but you say Exxon, I think Valdez. They don't tell you that drillers will need 9-10 years to "prep" the site and the finished product will be minimal. Oops! don't cut it. Extinct or destroyed is forever.
I do think 30 bucks is a big deal but if you’re afraid to go over a bridge because you don’t feel lucky that day, it really doesn’t matter what gas costs.


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