Gas prices are high.  Demand for gas in the summer usually increases, driving prices up further.  Politicians see this as a big problem.  The solution currently proposed by Hillary Clinton and John McCain?  Let's have a holiday from the gas tax during the summer.  This is an incredibly stupid policy.  It is the craziest policy I have heard in some time.  Not only would this reduce revenue collected by the government by an estimated $9 Billion (we have both a huge federal debt and a budget deficit) but it would also work to increase gas consumption, just the opposite of what is needed.

In fact, today if you search on "gas tax" in Google, John McCain is actually paying for advertisements to promote his views on the gas tax holiday.  Here is an example:

Lucky for him, Obama has not jumped on the bandwagon.  I say he is lucky, because by not being a complete idiot he may have earned my vote. (We have such low standards for political leaders in the US.  Sigh.)

Mike Volpe's Better Solution to the Gas Tax Holiday

• All politicians should have to take (and pass!) an Economics 101 class before being eligible for election to Congress.  Their grade, tests and papers for the class should be posted on the Internet.
• Let's increase the gas taxto reduce consumption of gas - at the federal level we could double the tax (an extra 18 cents a gallon) and raise at least $20 billion per year.
• We should then take the money from the higher gas tax and give it as research grants to companies researching alternative energy and green energy technologies.
• This research will help ensure the US is the world's technological leader in green power.  As oil reserves worldwide dry up, this will work to increase the demand for these technologies which will increase sales for these companies in the US, increasing jobs, decreasing our trade gap and all sorts of other good things for us.

How cool would it be if Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other previously oil rich countries had to purchase solar, wind and battery power technologies from the US?

If we follow the right policies, this could happen in 10-20 years.   Americans should expect better leadership from our next president than short cited policies that make our lives a tiny bit better today but sacrifice so much in the future.