We’re So Close
We’re close to many things!
We’re getting close to 100 firearms per 100 people in the US! You know, if we could reduce the number of guns, maybe we could cut the crime rate to around the same level as South Africa, Colombia, or Pakistan. Peace and harmony.
We’re close to agreeing on doing something stupid! It’s a stupid article, also, but…
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unveiled his nonsensical solution to $4-a-gallon gasoline two weeks ago when he proposed suspending the federal excise tax on gas during the peak-travel summer months.
Stupid.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) seconded McCain’s motion and spiced it up with a proposal to tax windfall profits of oil companies to make up for the lost gas-tax revenues.
So, stupid and stupider? Windfall profits? Damn, that’s irritating. Stupid.
McCain’s gas-tax gimmick is about what one would expect from a Republican candidate, given that his party’s shortsighted energy policies are partly to blame for the fix we’re in today. Rather than supporting conservation measures, such as tougher vehicle fuel standards, the Republicans wasted years fighting a pointless battle to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. President Bush continued to hammer on this tired theme Tuesday, as if unaware that it would take about a decade to extract a drop of oil from the refuge and that doing so would have a negligible effect on prices.
What happened to the bi-partisan spirit? During the years of cheap oil, let’s be honest, the Democrats weren’t really all that excited about pushing through higher MPG standards. However, the point about ANWR is true. Stupid and stupid.
Any economist could have predicted this: If you lower the price of gas without increasing the supply, it will only raise demand and thus boost prices.
Ah! Smart!
In other political news, Obama’s former pastor loves him some spite/scorched earth and, no, we’re not done with election season yet. Sorry
