Thursday, April 27, 2006
GOP Senators: We'll buy our way into your hearts (with your own money)
This is rather maddening: The Republicans want to give almost every American taxpayer a $100 gas rebate.
I've given this exactly 2 minutes of thought, but it strikes me as horrendous. Correct me if I'm way off base in these quick reactions:
The measure's also tied to drilling in Alaska, which is a joke and won't do shit in the long-run (and probably not even in the short run).
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I've given this exactly 2 minutes of thought, but it strikes me as horrendous. Correct me if I'm way off base in these quick reactions:
- $100 won't really help most people in the long run. And prices simply aren't that much higher than they were last year, post-Katrina. It's all about timing. Besides, there are so many areas where prices are hitting consumers infinitely harder than at the pump. Where's our thousand-dollar rebate to cover health care cost explosions?
- It puts us further in the hole at a time of record deficits.
- Giving it to everyone making under $125K instead of only low-income people is absolutely obscene--but Republicans would never limit it to the needy. Those losers don't vote for them.
- It's such a transparently desperate move politically, it's pathetic.
- And most importantly: It sends a message that we should continue on our current path of consumption -- and we'll be aided by government handouts. The anti-environment Republicans will give lip service to conservation, but the real message is: our current rate of gas guzzlage is so important, we'll bankrupt a bone-dry treasury so we don't have to change our habits.
The measure's also tied to drilling in Alaska, which is a joke and won't do shit in the long-run (and probably not even in the short run).
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