Gas-Tax-Trophe or Ga-Scam?

It's a big hoax--nothing will happen, and nothing should. The windfall tax on oil company profits will be a 2009 legislative issue, and it will depend on whether economic demagogues will be looking for a scapegoat for lack of recovery. Otherwise there will not be the will to sustain such an initiative.

The gas tax should have been a dollar, rather than 16.5 cents, the last 10 years. If that had been true, we would've saved billions of gallons of oil and would now be much further along in developing our arena of fuel and power supplies. The question of windfall taxes would not be so urgent, either. As our demand for an ever-expanding highway system (in a no-longer expanding geography) reduces, we could then cut the tax and let fossil fuels compete with the emerging ones. But where we are now, it is totally the wrong policy to reduce the fuel tax.

I like the tactical adaptation of an attempted McCain initiative by Hillary. What the heck, let's give it a week and see if it moves the masses!

Obama is, as he is so often, right in his argument and reasons behind it. Which may or may not be good politics. In this case, it provides an object lesson in the Post-Whatever Politics he espouses.