We are in the midst of choosing a nominee for the Democratic Party who, if elected, would serve as President from the years 2009-2013.
You read that right, we are electing a president for the years after most science fiction stories we grew up with were set. We're talking beyond the Terminator and Beyond the Thunderdome.
And, yes, I have a problem thinking that Hillary Clinton, a candidate shaped by the 1992 Presidential election and the Health Care failure of 1994, and John McCain a candidate whose career was shaped by the Savings in Loan crisis and the Keating Five, represent anything other than more of the same.
In fact, given the Gas Tax Gimmick that both of them are promoting, I tend to agree with John Edwards, if you want the status quo, Hillary Clinton is your candidate.
There's a problem with that...we don't have time to waste.
Matt Yglesias made a great point about the pander policy "gas tax gimmick" that Hillary Clinton is selling as her solution to America's dependence on foreign oil:
As Brad Plumer says this is hardly a "short-term" issue -- is Clinton really going to implement a cap-and-trade program if she thinks the correct policy response to rising gasoline prices is tax cuts? There's a big problem here.
What did Brad Plumer have to say?
If we want a realistic shot at averting drastic climate change and weaning the country off oil so that Americans don't keep getting slammed as prices rise inexorably to $200 a barrel, well, then it's not enough for presidential candidates to just lay out nice policy white papers; we'll actually need politicians who don't shriek and start pandering furiously at the first sign of higher prices. Right now, Obama's edged closest to doing that.
Why the urgency? What's the big deal?
Well, the big deal is that Bill and Hillary Clinton shoved NAFTA down the throats of the Democratic Party in 1993. For all Bill likes to talk about his vaunted "rules for politics" the Clintons broke those rules and passed NAFTA by breaking the back of the Democratic majority in the House. Most Democrats voted against NAFTA. Clinton passed the treaty with with a minority of Democrats and a majority of the Republicans in Congress.
That fall, in 1994, the Republican Party gained control of Congress and the rest is history.
Specifically, with the Republican Congress, we got CAFE standards that were lax and represented huge giveaways to Detroit automakers and hooked America on foreign oil and SUVS. Specifically, we got a failure to fully ratify the Kyoto protocols that were, in the eyes of most environmentalist policy experts, our last, best hope to deal with global warming and CO2 emissions while we were still in the driver's seat. Specifically, we privileged Wall Street and have neglected Main Street and now real wages have stagnated as jobs are shipped overseas.
And in 2000, after the Clinton scandals helped make "Conservatism" a popular theme, we got not just a Republican Congress but the presidency of George W. Bush. And we want to put Bill and Hillary and Mark Penn and James Carville and Terry McAuliffe back in charge again? We want to turn the Democratic party and our policy over to these folks who helped get us in exactly the situation we are in today? Is this what kind of policy set we want from our President in 2009? More poll-driven pandering?
I don't think so.
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Hillary v. McCain = more of the same
The Gas Tax Pander is the perfect expression of why the Hillary Clinton/Mark Penn poll-driven policy is wrong for America. It might win Clinton votes in the short term, but it epitomizes why Clinton is wrong for our party in 2008.
We don't have time to waste.
If Hillary Clinton thinks that the gas tax pander is good policy, how in the hell is she going to pass Energy Legislation with real teeth like the 100% Cap and Auction policy that Barack Obama is committed to?
There's an easy answer to that, she won't. The gas tax pander proves that Hillary Clinton isn't serious about Real Solutions, period. When it comes to Real Solutions, Hillary Clinton is a typical politician, she'll say what she thinks she needs to say to get elected. But when it comes to energy independence it doesn't work that way.
Hillary Clinton can't go out one day and say to Americans:
"Hey, gas is expensive, so I'm going to xerox a John McCain Republican policy cutting your taxes and use it to beat up Barack Obama!"
And then turn around and say, once elected:
"My fellow Americans, all that pandering I did to get elected, well, the truth is we can't really do that anymore. I know I might have saved you all an average of $15.40 last summer if there was any realistic chance of my Gas Tax Gimmick passing...which there wasn't. But now that I'm elected I need you to face the facts: we need to pass legislation that will make energy begin reflect it's true environmental costs and that will mean we all will have to conserve and invest in more fuel efficient cars and homes and businesses."
That won't happen. Hillary Clinton will not do that. She just proved it. John McCain won't do that. He just proved it even more.
The Gas Tax Pander won't buy the average American family one Egg McMuffin a week.
Meanwhile, the taxes that fuel 300,000 American jobs will be cut off, or, in Clinton's case, shifted to energy companies that will just pass the bill on to us while likely making gas even more expensive.
Per Wired.com:
McCain's proposal could cost the government some $9 billion dollars - and more than 300,000 jobs.
The tax supports the federal Highway Trust Fund, which finances road projects nationwide and is already facing a $3.4 billion shortfall, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials says. The American Society of Civil Engineers says every dollar invested in highway infrastructure generates $5.40 in economic benefits through reduced delays, improved safety and lower vehicle operating costs. And the federal transportation department says every $1 billion in highway spending creates 34,779 jobs.
You read that right. Every dollar from that gas tax goes to create American jobs that can't be shipped overseas, jobs that help American families pay their mortgages and keep our roads safe. And, yes, every dollar we invest in our infrastructure generates $5.40 in cascading economic benefits.
You and I can't even buy our family an Egg McMuffin a week with our potential savings from the Gas Tax Gimmick, but collectively, our $9 Billion paid at the pump becomes $48.6 Billion in economic benefits to our economy and helps prevent disasters like the bridge collapse in Minneapolis to boot:
The three month moratorium on the gas tax could cost the nation's surface transportation infrastructure as much as $8.5 billion, and delaying these much needed transportation projects would also have a significant "trickle down" cost to the American people, while providing them no real benefit.
Traffic congestion costs the average American motorist $710 a year in lost productivity and wasted fuel -- nearly a full work week and more than 25 gallons of gas -- and cars and trucks idling in traffic are one of the greatest contributors to carbon emissions. But, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, every dollar invested in the nation's highway system yields $5.40 in economic benefits in reduced delays, improved safety and lower vehicle operating costs. And, every billion dollars in federal highway construction spending generates more than 30,000 jobs annually.
-Denver Business Journal
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we need honesty in Washington
If we ran our households like Hillary Clinton and John McCain want to run our country, we'd be doing a disservice to our kids. We'd be putting sugar in their sandwiches and telling them it's good for them. We'd be giving them candy bars after school and telling them it will help them grow their bones and muscles. We'd be borrowing from their piggy banks at night to go out on the town and telling them that we were using that money to invest in their college fund.
Now, we wouldn't do that to our kids, why do we want to let Hillary Clinton and John McCain do that to our country?
These are difficult times, we don't need pander policies that do the opposite of what they seem to do. We need a leader who brings out the best in Americans and encourages us to come together and do the right thing. Sometimes the right thing, as any parent knows, is hard to do at first, but pays huge dividends later on.
These are tough and difficult times. Do we want a President who voted for the war in Iraq but now refuses to answer forthrightly on that question? Do we want a President who supported NAFTA when it was expedient but now pretends that she did not? Do we want a President who panders with a Gas Tax Gimmick in election season but promises to deal seriously with conservation and energy independence once she's President?
We need honesty from our leaders, and Barack Obama is ready to give us just that.
What's gets more and more clear everyday is that Hillary Clinton is a politician who, despite what she says about Real Solutions, is for gimmicks and business as usual in Washington. We can't afford that. Not now.
The McCain Clinton Gas Tax Pander proves that more and more, with every day, Hillary v. McCain = More of the Same.
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