Hillary Machiavelli Gives Me Another Headache

Sen. Clinton, like Sen. McCain, her presidential choice for 2008, has decided that cutting the federal gas tax is going to ease our pain. Her plan differs from her man McCain's in that he wants to put the lost revenue on our national credit card, while she wants to steal it from oil corporations:

The New York senator highlighted new oil company profit figures
as evidence her proposed windfall profits tax was the answer. “The oil companies
have figured out a way to keep profiting no matter what else happens,” she said.
“Over the last three months, while you were being pummeled by high gas prices,
Shell’s profits rose by 25 percent, and BP’s by 63
percent. So the oil companies are doing very well, and it’s high time that they
helped to relieve the burden of high gas prices on our families and our
businesses.

This is one of the biggest blunders of her entire life. I am no champion of the oil corporations, as a matter of fact, part of me thinks they should all be nationalized, but I have no idea how you punish a company for record profits. I can already see the Republicans calling this a success tax.

What about the "regular folk" that have oil corps in their 401k plans that will see their retirement funds drop because of this absurd policy?

Sen. Obama correctly shot back:

Clinton and Republican Sen. John McCain are calling for a holiday on collecting
the federal gas tax "to get them through an election," Obama said at a North
Carolina rally. "The easiest thing in the world for a politician to do is tell
you exactly what you want to hear."

Clinton and McCain are short sighted electoral appeasers. This is a tiny Band-Aid at best and will do great damage in the long term. This is the sort of thinking that got us into the gutter in the first place.