Gas Tax Holiday: A Pander Bear Redux

During the 1992 presidential primary season, the late Sen. Paul Tsongas slapped a sappy moniker on then Gov. Bill Clinton. Memory serves me, Sen. Tsongas clumsily strode up to a bank of cameras, pand(er) bear in hand.

Tsongas made his point about Gov. Clinton. But it was a klutzy photo-op and, save for a couple of days of positive spin for Sen. Tsongas, the label didn’t stick to the Arkansas governor.

Fast-forward 16 years and it’s deja vu (all over, again).

We find ourselves back at the National Zoo, staring at Tian Tian and Mei Xiang,  who are now played by Sen. John McCain and Sen. Hillary Clinton, respectively.

The idea that these two agree on, to suspend the National Gas Tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day, is a wholly inappropriate idea that will do very little (if anything) to lower the price at the pump - and quite possibly - make gasoline selling during the winter months even more-expensive. What is more, it takes away revenue that otherwise would be used for repairs to our national transportation infrastructure.

Renowned economists, including President Clinton’s own Labor Secy. Robert Reich, believe that the gas tax holiday is the wrong way to lower gas prices.

In a story broadcast April 30 on American Public Media’s Marketplace, Secy. Reich said:

You want to hold oil prices down? In the short term, strengthen the dollar. Part of the reason oil prices are soaring is because the dollar is tanking.”

Reich then offered what he considers a sounder economic strategy:

Over the longer term, though, China and India’s insatiable demand for oil will continue to drive oil prices up, and turmoil in the Middle East is likely to keep them up. So there’s really only one way for us to go: alternative sources of energy — wind, solar, biomass, water and, if we can make it safe enough, nuclear.”

With a gallon of gasoline kissing $4 a gallon, we’re all feeling the pain. And certainly, no one likes paying taxes. But advocating a policy such as this - intended solely for generating votes - is folly.

UPDATE (by Chris): Forget Robert Reich, every economic expert in America is slamming this Clinton/McCain “plan.” Here’s NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg:

“It’s about the dumbest thing I’ve heard in an awful long time, from an economic point of view. We’re trying to discourage people from driving and we’re trying to end our energy dependence … and we’re trying to have more money to build infrastructure.”

UPDATE II: From a Sunday, May 4, 2008 story on HuffPost:

Sen. Hillary Clinton is sticking to her policy proposal of a gas tax holiday, and the breadth of her now-famous statement that members of Congress are either “with us or against us” has been extended to economists. Today she joined George Stephanopoulos for a This Week town hall.

When asked to name a credible economist who backed her idea to use a windfall profit tax against oil companies to fund the suspension of a tax on gasoline, Clinton responded:

“I’m not going to put my lot in with economists”… Clinton added that the tax holiday would work “if we actually did it right.”

She continued the line of attack, criticizing more generally “this mindset where elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans.”

“With us or against us? ”  Where’ve we heard that one before?