DUKE's Rants: (BN) More Than 200 Economists Denounce Clinton, McCain Gas-T

From: Duke
Date: Mon, May 5, 2008 at 4:57 PM
Subject: (BN) More Than 200 Economists Denounce Clinton, McCain Gas-T
To: madpercolator

Jeez, 200?! Um, is that a lot?

But seriously, I hate to keep going back to this issue, but it is pretty much
the only real policy difference that voters in IN and NC have to work with
anymore. What's killing me at this point is why Obama and his surrogates refuse
to take a swing at the bogus Clinton claim that a gas tax holiday provides any
kind of relief. I mean, they dance around it, making salient points about oil
companies not passing on savings and whatnot, but their responses never quite
reach the level of directness that the "this proves how out of touch he is" jab
that they use against him posseses.

Give me something like, "I'm in touch enough to know that voters don't want to
pay even higher prices and the pump while helping oil companies improve their
profits, which Senator Clinton seems to be in favor of with this plan."

The issue is so ridiculous that I think we'd all be better served if it was
treated like the farce it is, not as a serious policy dispute. Cause and effect
prediction can only go so far in economics, but based on what we know about the
likely affect on consumer demand and the behavior of oil companies, my gut
feeling is that a gas tax holiday beginning at the beginning of the summer is
the most direct path to paying $4.00 a gallon for regular, probably by July and
definitely BEFORE the tax is reinstated. Then again, my gut feeling is priceless
 seeing how nobody's ever offered to pay me for it, but whatevs, that's why we
got all these internets, right?
More Than 200 Economists Denounce Clinton, McCain Gas-Tax Plans
2008-05-05 13:35 (New York)


By Brian Faler
    May 5 (Bloomberg) -- More than 200 economists, including
four Nobel prize winners, signed a petition rejecting proposals
by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain to
offer a gas-tax holiday.
    Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz, former
Congressional Budget Office Director Alice Rivlin and 2007 Nobel
winner Roger Myerson are among those who signed the letter
calling proposals to temporarily lift the tax a bad idea. Another
is Richard Schmalensee of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, who was member of President George H.W. Bush's
Council of Economic Advisers.
    The moratorium would mostly benefit oil companies while
increasing the federal budget deficit and reducing funding for
the government highway maintenance trust fund, the economists
said.
     ``Suspending the federal tax on gasoline this summer is a
bad idea, and we oppose it,'' the petition says. Economist Henry
Aaron of the Brookings Institution is among those circulating the
letter and said most signers are economists. Aaron said that
while he supports Obama, the list includes Republicans and
Clinton supporters.
    The gas-tax suspension has become a flashpoint in the race
for the Democrat presidential nomination between New York Senator
Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Clinton and Republican
McCain tout the proposal as an example of their concern for
struggling middle-class families. Obama calls the idea a
``gimmick,'' rejecting it on similar grounds as the economists.

                       Proposal Rebuffed

    Obama's opposition shows he is ``somebody who just doesn't
seem to understand that middle-class families are hurting,''
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said yesterday.
    Clinton yesterday dismissed economists' objections to the
plan.
    ``I'm not going to put my lot in with economists,'' she said
in an interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
``We would design it in such a way that it would be implemented
effectively.''
    The proposal has been rebuffed by House Democratic leaders
including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Financial
Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts.
    The environmental group Friends of the Earth endorsed Obama
over the weekend and called Clinton and McCain's moratorium
proposals ``sham solutions that won't ease the pain at the
pump.''
    Rivlin, who headed the CBO before running the White House
budget office during the Clinton administration, was among the
Clinton backers signing the petition.
    ``I don't have to agree with everything she says, and I
think she was wrong on this one,'' Rivlin said in an interview
today. ``If anything, we need higher gas taxes.''

*T
Related news:
For more on the candidates and the gas tax: {TNI ELECT GAS <GO>}
For more on the campaign in Indiana: {TNI ELECT IN <GO>}
For more on the campaign in North Carolina: {TNI ELECT NC <GO>}
*T

--Editors: Bill Arthur, Brigitte Greenberg.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Brian Faler in Washington at +1-202-624-1919 or
bxxxx@xxxcom

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Forsythe at +1-202-624-1940 or
mxxxx@xxxcom.

[TAGINFO]

NI CNG
NI EXE
NI ELECT
NI GOV
NI POL
NI DC
NI US
NI DCAA
NI GASOLINE
NI ERG
NI REF
NI TAX
NI TRE



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-0- May/05/2008 17:35 GMT