Remember the other day when severe conservative Mitt Romney said President Obama shouldn’t really be blamed for high gas prices?
Well, I do. And now I think I may know why. From Economic Policy Journal (h/t Michelle Malkin / geoffB):
As the price of gasoline soars, top Mitt Romney adviser, Harvard economist Greg Mankiw sticks to his guns and calls for a hike in gasoline taxes. In a recent blog post, Mankiw points to a WaPo column which states:
N. Gregory Mankiw, former top economic adviser to President George W. Bush and current adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, also backs a stiff gas tax increase... In a New York Times column this year, Mr. Mankiw offered a tax overhaul that might include a gas tax “exceeding” $2 per gallon.
A significant portion of such a tax ultimately may land on oil producers, which means it cuts back on supply and exploration and, in a feedback loop, smacks the consumer right in the wallet.
For those keeping score, here’s where Mitt Romney and Barack Obama differ:
1. Mitt Romney’s held a private sector job in business.
2. Mitt Romney is a Mormon
3. Mitt Romney is very very White, while Obama is only half White.
4. Mitt Romney can dribble with his left
– And here’s where they are similar:
1. Mitt Romney pushed an individual mandate
2. Mitt Romney supported TARP
3. Mitt Romney supported a government stimulus plan
4. Mitt Romney doesn’t think Barack Obama is a truly bad dude
5. Mitt Romney doesn’t think a religious exemption for providing contraception is as important as a woman’s “right” to have her birth control covered by any insurance provider
6. Mitt Romney believes in federal minimum wage laws tied to the rate of inflation
7. Mitt Romney is sympathetic to the complaints of the OWS crowd
8. Mitt Romney believes businesses exist to create jobs
9. Mitt Romney believes government needs to do something to prevent climate change and CO2 (that is, human exhalation) pollution
10. Mitt Romney considered Ted Kennedy a friend and collaborator
11. Mitt Romney expressly distanced himself from Ronald Reagan and conservative policy
12. Mitt Romney has used his mouthpieces to attack Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Michele Bachmann
13. Mitt Romney wants to concentrate on helping the “middle class” — having accepted the class demarcation system favored by class warfare advocates from Marx to Obama
14. Mitt Romney isn’t going to worry about trying to please conservatives
15. Mitt Romney believes Social Security is a fine system, not a decades-long Ponzi scheme; Mitt Romney wonders why certain conservatives want to throw Grandma off a cliff
16. Mitt Romney believes it appropriate to milk the federal government — and the taxpayer — of every last penny in order to fund a pet project. Though Mitt Romney will deny he feels that way when he’s busy criticizing others for taking earmarks
17. Mitt Romney wants conservatives to compromise with Democrats
18. Mitt Romney has been campaigning for President for the last 5 years
But hey: he’s better than the alternative, right? Now stop being such purists and jump on board. He’s inevitable. And more, he’s electable. Mostly, it seems, because Obama got elected — and if Obama can get elected holding all these same positions, why the hell can’t Mitt Romney and the Republicans convince the American people that it’s time the GOP had its turn again at the wheel / trough?
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