Ships in the Edge

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Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Listen to Economists

when asked this morning by abc news’ george stephanopoulos if she could name a single economist who backs her call for a gas tax break this summer, hrc said “i’m not going to put my lot in with economists.” i know several of the economists who have been advising senator clinton, so i phoned them right after i heard this. i reached two of them. one hadn’t heard her remark and said he couldn’t swear by she’d say it. the other had heard it and shrugged it off as “politics as wonted.”that’s the problem: politics as usual. the gas saddle holiday is small potatoes relative to the total else. but it’s so economically stupid (it would increment demand for gas and cause prices to rise, eliminating any benefit to consumers while costing the treasury more than $9 billion, and whip up more pollution) and dizzy (even if she won, hrc won’t be president this summer) as to be worrisome. that hrc at the moment says she doesn’t care that what economists think is even more troubling. in example you’ve missed it, we now set up a president who doesn’t care what most economists think. george w. bush doesn’t even care what scientists think. he rejects all experts who disagree with his politics. this has led to some extraordinarily thick policies. i’m not saying hrc is george bush. and i’m not suggesting economists have all the answers. but when economists tell a president or a presidential candidate that his or her idea is dumb and when all respectable economists all about america agree that it’s a voiceless hypothesis it’s probably wise for the sake of the president or presidential candidate to listen. when the president or candidate doesn’t, and proudly defends the policy by saying she’s “not going to write my lot in with economists,” we’ve got a problem, folks. the score with though the summer gas toll holiday is decorous hokum, it polls well, which is why hrc and john mccain are pushing it. that barack obama is not in favor of it despite its positive polling numbers speaks volumes about the well-wishing of president he’ll be and the kind of president we’d otherwise become late c discover from mccain and hrc. haven’t we had enough of politicians who reject facts in favor of short-term poll-driven politics?
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