Which Voodoo do you do?

The latest snakeoil to hit the streets to help ease high gas prices and stimulate the economy is this notion of a federal gas tax holiday. One day where the 18.4% federal excise tax would be lifted at gas stations nation-wide.

Obama opposes it but both Hillary and McCain are in favor of it. Hillary, however, wants to replace this particular tax with a tax on Big Oil profits which, of course, will have to be made up for at the pump as Big Oil is simply not going to take this out of hide. That lost revenue is going to have to come from somewhere.

Like the economic stimulus plan or any of the proposed housing/mortgage crisis bailout plans being hurled about Capitol Hill, this tax holiday grandstanding does nothing to actually improve the situation. This tax holiday does nothing to actually bring more oil to market to satisfy the demand of a slowing but still robust economy that's not quite up and running on ethanol and solar cells (any day now...).

And don’t get us wrong… a skepticism of the long-term usefulness of this plan does not prevent acting upon an enlightened self-interest, jack – we’ll be more than happy to pocket that $10-15 we’ll save by filling up that day.

Bush, yesterday, had the temerity to mention ANWR for which he was roundly criticized. ANWR is just a drop in the bucket… and actual oil for ANWR won’t make it to market for years. Well, how long have we been talking about ANWR? 5 years, 10 years, 15 years? Truth of the matter is, ANWR first became a topic of national consideration during Clinton, Bill’s first term – certainly a long enough time ago that ANWR’s drop in the bucket would’ve had some positive impact NOW in relieving the constrained supply had it been acted on THEN.

Thanks. Thanks for nothing.