Clinton and the Gas Tax

Paying attention to the election can be quite annoying. Elections are generally decided by ‘low information’ voters who generally do not have good reasoning behind their votes. As a result, politicians generally campaign with some pretty asinine arguments. If we want less of this, we need to ridicule these arguements and punish the politicians who push them.

Hillary Clinton appears to be the ultimate panderer off bad but sometimes appealing arguments. One particularly bad issue, that Hillary Clinton is making her big campaign issue right now is a gas tax holiday. Approximately 100% of economists think this is a bad idea, but Clinton dismisses economic opinion as ‘elitist’. I think this means that even though it is a bad idea, a lot of marginal voters don’t understand economics well enough to realize this. Most people would understand the flaw in Clinton’s position if it was explained to them, so Clinton strategy is to dismiss informed opinion, as strong leaders should… The gas tax is only 18 cents per gallon, abolishing it would have little effect outside of cutting funding for transportation. It would encourage more driving however, which is counterproductive towards the country’s goals of reducing pollution and dependence on foreign oil. It’s a Pigouvian tax, which is actually one of the few taxes with strong economic backing.

She’s not unintelligent. So, I think this is just a character issues. Hillary Clinton clearly fails once again.