Thursday, May 8, 2008

Clinton's Gas Problems


I watched an interview with Clinton on the Today show with Meredith Vieira. I believe Clinton has come on strong lately and has made her party question their decision to support Obama, but this week with a very good interview of Vieira, Hillary cracked a bit. Hillary, for the first time, looked like she was losing and was grasping at anything she could to still try to somehow win over her party. Vieira was questioning Clinton about her proposal to fix gas prices. My opinion was that Hillary looked very weak. She has proposed a plan to cut the gas tax during the summer months, something that almost every economist disagrees with. When Vieira brought that fact to Hillary’s attention, she said she did not care what economists think, basically applying that she knows more. I believe this is a political trick that I hope America can see right through. First off, even if she is elected, it would not be until November and she would not take office until next year. So for now, she can say anything she wants about this summer, knowing she will never have to put her money where her mouth is. She can play to angry Americans who are paying too much on gas, but yet not have to act so she will not have to deal with the political fall out. This is like a high school election, when candidates are promising to have less homework and better food, yet know that if elected they have no power to do either. Hillary is making promises that she can not act on, but knows she will not have to. To me this is a sign of a desperate woman.

Why is cutting the gas tax bad? There are complicated arguments against this, and I am not an economist, but as I see it, our country makes a lot of money from the gas tax, needed money, and cutting the tax does not guarantee a drop in price, just a higher prophet to the gas companies who pay the tax. The idea for Hillary is if you drop the tax, the gas companies will drop their price. But why would they? Gas companies are private businesses who want to make as much money as possible. People are willing to pay $4.00 for gas, they will yell and complain, but they will pay. Why would the gas companies drop their prices just because taxes are dropped when they can continue to make money. The only way to drop prices is to decrease the demand or raise the supply. Either we stop driving our cars or drill in Alaska, but we do not seem willing to do either (Hillary, the one who claims to want to find a solution voted against drilling in Alaska). We need to make the market work, but we are not willing to inconvenience ourselves and shop around. If we boycotted the most expensive companies they would have to lower their prices, we need a price war. I do not see any solution coming soon, but until it does, gas will become the primary battlefield in the presidential election, and we will continue to see politicians making promises they can not keep

1 comment:

Elder & Sister Ellis said...

Since we're going on an extended trip this summer, I would love to see gas prices decrease. Realistically though, I feel we do have to find alternative places for oil. I think if done correctly, we should/would be able to find ways to do it right here and stop relying on foreign oil.

On a side note, I know that the politicians use a lot of car services in D.C. to get around. Who pays for the gas in these cars? We taxpayers perhaps? If this is the case, then just like healthcare, lawmakers are pushing stuff on us that they themselves do not participate in/with. I don't think they will get serious about anything until they themselves have to participate in the exact things they try to regulate