Via CNN: Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks

Every American taxpayer would get a $100 rebate check to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.

However, the GOP energy package may face tough sledding because it also includes a controversial proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, which most Democrats and some moderate Republicans oppose.

[...]

As outlined by the senior GOP leadership aide, the energy package would give taxpayers a $100 rebate, repeal tax incentives for oil companies and allow the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute retailers unlawfully inflating the price of gasoline.

The measure would also give the Transportation Department authority to issue fuel efficiency standards for passenger vehicles, expand tax incentives for the use of hybrid vehicles and push for more research into alternative fuels and expansion of existing oil refineries.

In reading this, the following comes to mind:

it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

–Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5

While it may not signify nothing, it certainly doesn’t signify much. And at the risk of sounding impertinent, the idea that idiots are involved here has some salience.

While I like getting checks in the mail, I must confess that $100 isn’t really going to alleviate my gasoline bill all that much. More to the point: since when is it the government’s job to do so?

I don’t know enough about the tax incentives in question to evaluate their inherent value or lack thereof, but the immediate move to repeal them is clearly more about “do something” syndrome than it does about the value of the policies in question.

And why is it that every time prices go up, politicians feel the need to talk about illegality, even in the absence of any evidence? I would love for prices to come down, but the hysteria here is utterly ridiculous.

1 Comment

1. Since oil companies are the only people exploring for and developing oil reserves why would we want to take away tax incentives?

   The next time taxes go up can I talk about the illegality of taxes?

   The politicians need to quit looking at the oil companies and look instead at OPEC and the environmental regulations they themselves have forced upon us.

   Comment by Steve Plunk — Thursday, April 27, 2024 @ 4:18 pm

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