decidedlyodd

From David Brooks’ Op-Ed in the NY Times (emphasis mine):

She peddled her sham gas-tax holiday and repeated her attempt to blame Indiana’s job losses on outsourcing and Nafta. Stephanopoulos asked her to name a single economist who thinks a tax-holiday plan would work, and the daughter of Wellesley and Yale took the chance to shove the geeks into their lockers: “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists.”

When Stephanopoulos pointed out that Paul Krugman, a Times columnist, has raised doubts about the plan, Clinton lumped Krugman in with the Bush administration and said she wasn’t going to listen to the people responsible for the last seven years.

This wasn’t just shameless spin, it was shamelessness with a purpose. Clinton signaled that she wasn’t going to concede even an inch to the vast elitist conspiracy. She wasn’t going to feel guilty about ignoring the evidence. She was going to stomp on it, flay it and leave it a twisted mass of jelly quivering on the ground. She was going to perform the primordial duty of an alpha dog leader — helping one’s own.

I can deal with negative campaign ads and attempts to change the rules afterwards (e.g, trying to get Michigan and Florida delegates seated). Any candidate for President is going to do what they need to in order to win. It’s not an office sought by the unambitious or undetermined. However, the willful ignorance surrounding this whole proposed gas tax holiday bothers me greatly.

Somehow, the whole thing just smacks of something the current administration would do.

No major economist and no major environmental group has come out in favor of this proposal. It will not lower prices, but rather transfer those 18.4 cents from government highway funds to oil company profits. It will not lower demand, but instead continue to prolong our dependence on cheap sources of fossil fuels for energy.

I’ve felt similar about many of her misguided plans for dealing with the mortgage crisis. Freezing interest rates will only exacerbate the credit crisis and make it harder for others to borrow money. Delaying foreclosures for a couple months will only mean a flood of more of them later. Giving money to local governments to buy foreclosed properties will only saddle local and federal taxpayers with homes nobody can or wants to buy.