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Schrag: Suspending the Gas Tax—A Pander and Sucker Politics

By Peter Schrag

The bet placed by the political camps of John McCain and Hillary Clinton that the voters will hungrily bite into their proposal to suspend the federal gas tax doesn't seem to be paying off. Most voters appear to know it's a sucker pitch in which Clinton is both sucker – for taking up the McCain plan – and panderer for pushing it as a major campaign plank.

But the proposal, first dropped by McCain into a soup of other dubious economic ideas, among them his support for making permanent the 2001 Bush tax cuts he first opposed, is an accurate reflection of a national political culture that's poisoned our public life for the better part of three decades.

One of its anniversaries – or the nearest thing to it – is just a month off: June 6, the date in 1978 when Californians passed Proposition 13. It triggered the national tax revolt and marked the first major triumph of latter-day me-first individualism and market theology over the communitarian ideals and civic concern that moved the country to its greatest achievements during the Depression and the years of World War II.

The list of consequences of the neglect of high purpose is almost endless, both for California and for the nation.

The tax revolt began with, and reinforced, the illusion that it was possible to have first-class services and low taxes at the same time; to wage major foreign wars while cutting federal taxes; to run a safe economy and society with minimal regulation; to borrow and borrow again on the premise that there'd be no cost down the road.

The result is a nation of home foreclosures, a currency worth two-thirds of what it was a few tears ago, of flagship banks and other major financial institutions in hock to or owned by Chinese or Arab interests, an income structure where the richest take home an ever-growing share of the nation's economic returns.

You can't be surprised at the tactics. Sucker politics has paid off big-time for the better part of eight years and many times before then. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer frightened the country half to death with the great Red Scare in the years immediately following World War I. Joe McCarthy did the same 30 years later.

George Bush and John Ashcroft did the same during 2001-03, even as the administration mismanaged its wars; neglected the protection of ports, oil refineries, chemical plants and other high-grade targets in homeland security; failed to provide adequate armor for U.S. troops; and lied about the progress of the war, as it had about the reasons for starting it and as it continues to oversee the hopelessly corrupt reconstruction program of Iraqi infrastructure.

What's surprising now is that McCain, who had no reason to flee from integrity, has embraced the political culture on whose rejection his reputation once grew great.

Two years ago he kissed and made up with Jerry Falwell, whom he once castigated as an agent of intolerance. Once that barrier was broken, it must have been easy enough to accept the blessing of a bigot such as the Rev. John Hagee, who runs a group called Christians United for Israel but whose list of enemies goes well beyond Muslims and (as he puts it, that "whore") the Catholic Church.

Barack Obama didn't join the gas-tax rush, but his all-too-slow severance from his longtime pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright afforded McCain cover when none was deserved.

As for Clinton, much of whose platform deserves some respect, her record could also be more safely sheltered with honorable argument than with cynical campaigning on issues that in her deeper thoughts she can't reasonably believe in.

Suspending the federal gas tax during this year's summer driving season would cost federal transportation accounts some $9 billion to $10 billion, enough to impede or delay some major projects, kill construction jobs and thus slow urgent improvements to roads and bridges.

The return to motorists could be as much as a few dollars, but since the market may suck up the difference – meaning the savings will go to oil companies and their foreign suppliers – the motorist will notice the change only in the condition of his vehicle's shocks.

For the future of the national economy, the far more useful message would be notice that until we change our habits the price of energy will be higher, and we'd better prepare for it with fuel-efficient cars and appliances and policies, including higher gas taxes that encourage efficient use.

The pander politicians, in their search for support from Midwest corn farmers and ethanol producers, have sucked up to a lobby whose chief output seems to be higher food prices, more global malnutrition, increased groundwater pollution and little in reduced atmospheric pollution.

The country needs better. It needs a constant reminder that we are a community with common obligations and needs. It needs a lot less about what's best for No. 1.

Peter Schrag is the former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee. This article is published with his permission.

Posted on May 07, 2008

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