I Need a Politician-Free Holiday

[eggwards]

So hey, what's been going on?

★Well, at work I'm still in training. After a few weeks of being on the training wheels queue, helping out during tax season, we went back into the classroom. It's very hard to stay awake sometimes, as it seems like we've been in training forever, but the information is crucial.

★Spring has come, and so have several big storms, a few tornadoes and such. Monday was probably the last day where it was cool enough to wear a long-sleeved shirt, comfortably. unfortunately our tax-season jeans month is almost up, but we do go back to business casual. We'll till have some strong storms for a few weeks, but then it will be time for the hot summer heat.

★Chris and I have gone to two big comedy shows lately. A couple of weeks ago Mikey (mikeybeartx) and Michael (starzcub) gave us their tickets to see Lisa Lampanelli. Wow, how many racial stereotype jokes can one throw out? Still, she had pretty diverse audience just eating it all up. Lots of gays in the audience, too. Still, after about an hour, there was really a kind of "well, that's about as much of that that I need" kind of feeling...kind of like when you've got a large cheesecake slice from the Cheesecake Factory. You're done before it is.

Sunday night we went with Josh (joshjeffcoat) to see Margaret Cho. I was really more interested in seeing Kelly, but there are definitely things that are better about Liam Sullivan's video performances. He seems to know that, and part of his performance was projected on the screen. Margaret was funny, hilarious even, but as we went home we were all having a hard time remembering anything she said. I guess it's more personal than something where you can throw out a one liner she used.

★OK, a political rant to finish up with here. As John McCain seems to be in full middle-class pander mode (I saw someone use the term "pander bear"), he has suggested that their be a summertime "tax holiday" from the gas tax. In a way, this is sort of like the "tax free holiday" the State of Texas does on sales tax for a weekend right before school starts to give people a break.

So this has been criticized as a rather stupid plan, as the federal gas tax, if missing for several months, impacts the Federal Highway Fund. Not only do we have a problem with crumbling infrastructure, but now you're going to destroy a fund that pays for many jobs during a time of growing unemployment? The effect would likely hurt the economy stopping billions in projects and laying off millions of workers. When John McCain said he wasn't very knowledgeable about the economy, he wasn't kidding.

Well, Barack Obama came out against the idea of a Gas Tax Holiday for most of the reasons that I mentioned, and that the idea of having cheaper gas for a short time does nothing to keep us from using less oil in the future. It's a disincentive.

Well, seeing that Obama was against something that might be a wedge between him an gas-guzzling voters, Hillary Clinton said she would support the Gas Tax Holiday. In her world, she would then fund the Highway Fund by re-creating the windfall profits tax on oil companies. While I applaud her for at least trying to find a funding source to try to pay the way for a tax cut - something the republicans can't seem to be bothered with - the problem is that the oil companies will just pay for the tax as any other company does, by raising the price of it's product!

Look, we have enough problems caused by oil, and I'd love to hear one of these candidates come out with a better plan to encourage less use, and more efficent use, but that isn't the way the game is played right now. No one's talking real issues but everyone's trying to demean the other guy or gal's character. Frankly, I've had enough with all of them for now. I wish I could easily stop watching this trainwreck.

Comments

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I totally don't understand that reasoning. So the tax is to level the price of gas? Huh?

Just more interesting solutions from our peril-sensitive politicians.

[altf4ljdrama.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I've had enough with all of them for now. I wish I could easily stop watching this trainwreck.

I know what you mean!

Thanks for including the details on Mrs. Clinton's plans for the replacement - NPR didn't mention that in the top of the hour news update I heard, so I was like "What the hell? We can't keep this deficit spending going!!!" At least she had some more information about replacing the useless idea.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Well, I doubt that the congress would ever vote for the return of the windfall profits tax, at least not now, so I think Mrs Clinton just saw an easy way to create a wedge issue where their wasn't one before. It's another attempt to show her as the middle class candidate, even though she admitted today that it has been years since she has had to pump gas herself.

[altf4ljdrama.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

I liked michaelnolan's take on all of it.

[blachubear.livejournal.com]

Good post. But I'm afraid the powers that be will make sure that it will be Clinton vs. McCain to keep the status quo running.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Possibly, but I think it may change after next week. The remaining superdelegates seem to be breaking 2-1 for Obama. If he manages to win NC and Indiana next week it will probably be done.

Of course we were saying this weeks ago, and here we are.

[blachubear.livejournal.com]

I hope you're right about this one. Something got to give.