Senator McCain has introduced S.2890 which proposes a “holiday” from Memorial Day to Labor Day for the Federal tax on gasoline.  I see several problems with this.

First, it is a politician advocating that we borrow (that is, add to the national debt) to buy your vote and stick you and your children with the payments.

Second, it is bad energy policy.  The good thing about rising fossil fuel prices is that it provides an economic incentive to conserve energy and look for alternative energy sources.  We (as in all of us acting through our government) should use tax policy to put back in place those costs which the free market ignores.  Pollution is one of the major ones that does not get paid directly by the polluter.

Senator McCain, we have had eight years of an Oil Company President,
and it has brought the United States to the brink of moral, environmental, and economic bankruptcy.  This bill tells me that having you as President would not actually bring us a change.

Our future hinges on having a sustainable energy policy.  It is at the heart
of our environmental issues, our economic issues, and our foreign policy issues.  We cannot continue to let that policy be formed only on the basis of this quarter’s profits and this quarter’s public opinion poles.  This change will not be easy, and it will not be painless, but the alternative is worse.

Current energy policy funds both global warming and terrorism.   The proposed Gas Tax Holiday is more of the same.  No pain, no gain, Senator.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.