On Sunday May 4th Sen. Clinton was asked on ABC’s This Week to name a credible economist who supported her (and McCain’s) idea to suspend the federal tax on gasoline for the summer.
Her reply was, “We’ve got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans.” Elite opinion you say, you mean educated opinion that does not sit well with populist pandering to people who have no clue as to why the price of oil is so high and likely to go higher? Clinton also wants to impose a tax on oil-company profits to help fund the transition to higher efficiency energy technology. Excuse me but I thought oil company and every other company profits were already taxed and the more profit there is the more taxes are paid, at least that’s the way it works with me, the more I make the more taxes I give to the federal and state governments. You mean it’s not supposed to work that way?
Masking the real problems and creating incentives for Americans that help us hold on to our old ways is exactly the wrong idea and attempting to shift blame to the oil companies is just plain self-serving and stupid on Clinton’s part.
Why don’t we tax the windfall profits of agriculture companies to help lower the price of corn and rice, no wait, we subsidize them. Perhaps we should add an extra tax on companies that outsource work overseas or let the AMT drift lower and lower to fund more Congressional pork projects, oh my gosh we did that too. How about adding a surtax on the earnings of college endowment funds given the cost of a college education goes up each year at nearly double the rate of general inflation – not unlike health care? Talk about elite opinion, who better than college professors (who by the way spend a good part of their time not doing their job in any case) have been able to divert scrutiny over costs away from their business. And talk about elite opinion disadvantaging Americans, have you been to Hollywood lately Hillary?
When you see more Smartcars ® on the road than SUVs and hemi engine trucks that haul nothing heavier than the weeks groceries (lighter these days I suppose because food is so expensive), then talk to me about an effective energy policy.
QuinnsCommentary 