Hillary: I Wouldn’t Let Gas Prices Get So High
Rank pandering:
KOKOMO, Indiana (CNN) – Hillary Clinton is defending her proposal to eliminate the gas tax this summer, as rival Barack Obama and some economists continued to criticize it as a gimmick to appeal to voters that won’t actually impact their wallets.
“You’re going to hear from my opponent, and you’re going to hear from columnists and you’re going to hear from talking heads about how there’s nothing we can do about these gas prices except to have a long-term plan,” Clinton told supporters at an Indiana rally Wednesday night.
“Well of course we need a long-term plan,” said the New York senator. “But I’m not going to sit idly by and see people go out of business who are independent truckers not able to continue to choose between food and gas because they can’t afford either. I’m not going to sit idly by.”
I’ve got two reactions: First and foremost, as a limited-government proponent, “sit idly by” is pretty much exactly what I want politicians to do. At least on the gas prices issue. Political solutions to high prices are almost always worse than the high prices themselves, and given that most liberals like Hillary Clinton support punishments for the oil industry in the form of new taxes and regulations (things that would only drive prices upward) that’s certainly true in this instance. Just last night Hillary was basically telling Bill O’Reilly that she’d like the government to regulate oil industry profits. That’s not anything any free-market loving American should want.
My other reaction, though, is why liberals want lower gas prices anyway? Doesn’t gas use pollute the environment? Aren’t we supposed to be looking for alternative energy sources for things like transportation? Keeping the price of gas low - if it were even within the power of the politicians to do such a thing - would only ensure that more gasoline gets consumed. And that increased consumption of gasoline would postpone the day when consumers begin looking for transportation fueled by alternative energies.
For the average consumer price is the primary deciding factor when it comes to something like transportation. I’d be willing to wager that most people who are buying fuel efficient vehicles like hybrids and the like are doing so more to save money on gas than to “save the planet.” Thus, the greatest motivation that will exist to push people away from gasoline and inefficient vehicles is high gas prices.
You want people to stop driving GMC Yukons? You want more people to use public transportation? You want more people to walk or ride bikes to work? You want more people to take hybrids, hydrogen cars, electric cars and biofuels seriously?
Let gas get up to $5.00/gallon or higher so that the decision about those things I’ve just mentioned is market-driven and not mandated and/or subsidized by the government.
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