I have been trying to understand the Hillary gas tax holiday, I know it was McCains idea and then Hillary decided to make it her own. Bill Clinton was a master at taking good ideas and making them his own, Hillary seems to be a master at taking bad ideas and making them her own. The other part of Hillarys tax holday measure calls for a windfall profits tax on oil companies. That seems pretty unfair, why should we tax some businesses more than others when they are successful? The other problem with a windfall profits tax is that it wold probably be passed on the to the consumer, which would probably erase any savings of the gas tax holiday.Â
It seems that the main purpose of the windfall profits tax is to show those oil comapnies that we don’t like them and by taxing them at a higher rate we are somehow standing up for the little guy. In reality the oil consumers are paying the same amount for fuel, oil companies are making the same amount of money after tax, but somehow we feel better. I remember reading somewhere(I think it was at right thinking.com) that all those renewable energy credits would just go to big oil companies as they were the ones who had the expertise to devolope new energy. The author seemed to think that was a bad thing.  Anything that creates cleaner energy(especially if it does not involve corn) is a good thing regardless of who gets the money for it.
Populism seems to have become movement that believes if your neighbors home burns down yours looks better. The real situation is that after the fire you live next to a burned out wreck that drags everyones values down.Â