Hillary Clinton really should be ashamed of herself for her advocating an ineffectual and pandering gas-tax “holiday”. Not only because it is such an irrefutably terrible idea, but also because it puts the Democrats in Congress and either Democratic nominee in even greater jeopardy of falling victim to successful right-wing phony populist demagoguery.
Without Clinton’s support, the gas-tax suspension could be dismissed as Republican pandering. But Hillary Clinton supporting a gas tax suspension could be handing Republicans in Congress a campaign issue on a silver platter, and, of course, pit Clinton against “elitist” Democrats in Congress in yet another Clinton bid to win personal glory at the expense of their own party. Clinton’s attempt to distinguish her plan from McCain’s by proposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies just makes the political problem even worse.
Here is how. Democrats in Congress understandably and justifiably oppose this dumb campaign ploy. They could easily pass it off as a foolish non-starter and silly stunt by McCain. But that will be a lot harder with Clinton so strongly supporting it and, even worse, calling anyone who opposes it an out-of-touch elitist who does not want to help ordinary Americans.
Now, if Republicans in Congress were smart politically (even if dumb substantively) they would immediately be pushing in Congress a gas-tax holiday with no strings attached -- no windfall profits tax. They could wonder with all their famous, wide-eyed, feigned incredulity why in the world Democrats do not support such a wonderful gift to the hard-working, hard-pressed Americans who just need a little relief. They would certainly add, if it is such a bad idea, why does Hillary Clinton support it? And even Hillary Clinton says Democrats who oppose the tax cut are elitist intellectuals who are out of touch with the American people.
At this point, the Republicans would have successfully used Hillary Clinton to pit Hillary Clinton against Congressional Democrats. It does not take any cynicism, but only knowledge of history, to suggest that Hillary would relish the opportunity to score political points by distinguishing herself as a populist advocate of the people against an overly liberal, ivory-tower Congress. Bill Clinton's famous 1996 triangulation strategy was based on the same idea.
Then, if Democrats vote down the tax, or refuse to being it to a vote, Republicans have themselves a great campaign issue to argue that Democrats, despite everything they say, do not care about the plight of ordinary Americans during these difficult economic times.
But wait, you might say, Clinton is offering to pay for her gas-tax holiday with a windfall profits tax on big oil companies and we all know Republicans will never go for that, so Democrats could insulate themselves politically by simply adding the windfall profits tax to any bill. It is true, of course, that Republicans would filibuster such a tax and the President would never sign it anyway. This is what makes Clintons’ proposal so shamefully disingenuous and fatuous, but also where the Clinton proposal makes things even worse politically for Democrats.
Republicans could argue that they offered and support a “clean” bill that would give relief to those hard-working Americans. The "Democrat" Party, however, is so hell-bent on increasing taxes, especially on oil companies, that they are not willing to help the American people unless they can also punish American companies with new and unnecessary taxes in a time of economic difficulty. Again, wide eyed and incredulous: “Don’t Democrats understand that this tax will weaken American companies competing with subsidized foreign firms and that the oil companies will just pass these tax increases on to the consumer as higher prices, completely wiping out the relief we Republicans were trying to give the American people.”
Suddenly Democrats are back to being tax-everything-that-moves-and-the-well-being-of-American-families-be-damned elitists again. But this would also put Hillary Clinton in a tough (or extremely desirable if triangulating) position. She would be faced with either opposing a gas-tax holiday if not accompanied by a windfall profits tax or changing her position and supporting the tax holiday anyway. In other words, abandoning working-class Americans or, you know its coming, flip-flopping. It’s a lose-lose for Clinton.
Except. Except that Clinton will not play it that way. Clinton will argue that the “clean” bill should be passed, if that is all that can get through, because we need to put the hard-working Americans first. We can wait for the windfall profits tax until the fall when she is elected and there is a stronger Democratic majority in Congress. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an out-of-touch elitist. In essence, completely sell out Congressional Democrats and side with Republicans to pander to the newly and finally honestly identified class of voters that seem to be her target demographic: “uninformed voters”.
This way, Hillary can portray her narcissistic, elite self as a working-class hero and Barack Obama as an ivory-tower elitist. But she will also by implication label as elitist all Democrats who supported the combined bill she proposed initially (or just straight up opposed this stupid, stupid idea), open herself to charges of flip-flopping in the fall should she be the nominee, and, even worse, will give the Republicans a populist Congressional campaign issue in a year that should be awful for them.
Why are Democrats allowing Clinton to put them at such risk to pander for votes? Why is the mainstream media discussing Clinton's gas-tax proposal as a smart political ploy, even while recognizing it as terrible public policy that will never get anywhere? Why are so many people so afraid to take on the Clintons and call their cynical manipulation what it really is? Comments anyone?
