People rag on Sen. Barack Obama, asking, “What has he done?” My question isn’t what has he done, but, “what will he do.”
If the election campaign is any example, I like his thinking. He says what’s on his mind and mostly avoids pandering, or I should say, less so than the other politicians.
Take, for example, the most recent notion of some to help the American consumer. Both Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton are not backing off their stupid idea of providing a “gas tax holiday” this summer. They want to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas tax to help working Americans. Obama is opposed.
Obama says it like it is: The relief is only $28 per driver!
Now the conversation is working its way into our state. Some elected officials want to also suspend the 23 cent state tax on gasoline. According to the Baltimore Examiner, “State Sen. Andy Harris called for a special session to pass such a measure, but said Gov. Martin O’Malley and other state leaders did not advance the proposal.”
Harris went on to say, “There’s very few things we can do at the state level to help, and this is one of them. The state leaders don’t like tax cuts and they don’t like this one, but the people are clamoring for [lawmakers] to do something about gas prices.’”
Of course Harris is running for Congress and he’s out to show how conservative he can be. He wants to be Mr. Anti-Tax, putting a whopping $35 into your pocket.
More important to me is that we’re once again sending the wrong signals to our citizens. We’re saying, “When gas prices go too high, we’ll help you.” What we should be saying is, “Gas prices are high, they’re going higher. So get used to it, and if you don’t want to pay them, drive a more fuel efficient car, carpool, bike, or take the Light Rail.”
People will be mad; it’s anti-American to call for conservation. But you don’t have to wear a flag pin on your lapel to be patriotic. You have to want to drastically drop the demand for Middle East oil from whose profits in turn fund the killing of Americans in Iraq and innocent Israelis thanks to some Arab countries funding Hamas and Hezbollah.
If we really want to help working class Americans and hard working Marylanders, let’s eliminate the state sales tax on things like energy efficient light bulbs and phosphorus-free dish detergent. That will help Marylanders and help our Bay at the same time.
Federally, we can lower the payroll tax on lower income Americans. Let’s be smart with our tax holidays. We don’t want to encourage more use of oil that supports terror. Gas prices are finally getting high enough where it’s affecting people buying habits.
On this Yom Hazikaron/Israel Memorial Day, let’s remember the Israelis who died at the hands of terrorists and pledge to say no to politicians who won’t do anything to stop it from continuing.
Posted by on 05/06/08 at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)
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