Pensieri di un lunatico minore

Those pesky facts

I wish I could understand what was wrong with Hillary Clinton of late. It’s like at some point an otherwise intelligent person suddenly came down with a case of the crazies. Witness her latest episode:

In the face of criticism from a slate of economists who say her gas tax holiday plan would be ineffective or even harmful, Hillary Clinton said she wasn’t taking stock of their opinions and emphasized that this was a short-term fix that would primarily benefit long-distance drivers.

Not listening to over a hudnred economists who said that this was a (to paraphrase) “damned stupid idea”. First, Hillary tries to spin it as helping the middle class, but “long-distance drivers” sounds more like truckers than the “average” person.

Let’s say you commute 30 miles to work, each way, in a Chevy Malibu. Let’s further say that you get about 20MPG when doing this daily commute. That means, in a week, you’d do 300 miles. Add in another 50 miles for the weekend, and you’ve got 350 miles. Now, the federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. That means if you cut the entire thing, and if by some magical coincidence this was actually passed on to consumers, rather than pocketed, the average person I mention above would save a whopping $3.22 per week, or around $15 per month. Not exactly a lot of relief. No, this smells distinctly like the most base form of pandering. Oddly, it’s also what John McCain supports.

“I’m not going to put my lot in with economists,” Clinton told George Stephanopolous on ABC’s ‘This Week’ after he asked her to name a single economist supporting her plan. “If we actually did it right, if we had a president who used all the tools of the presidency, we would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively.”

Not going to “put her lot in with economists”? Sounds way too much like George W. Bush who isn’t very familiar with the facts, nor does he have any interest in them. Prefers his “gut”. Well, Hillary, shooting from the hip and trusting your “gut” has gotten us into this mess, and I’d rather not do that. Economists can be an odd bunch, and sometimes it’s hard to separate politics from the theories, but there’s some basic fundamental pieces of supply and demand at work here.

When every ounce of gas is purchased at $3+/gallon, why do you think the cost will come down? Only more supply or less demand will bring it down. Otherwise, the 18.4 cents will go into the oil company pockets, or more likely, into those of those middle-east states who hate us.

Way to bring about change.