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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (672164)	2/14/2005 10:09:33 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 769670

That summarizes it very well. Don't expect the BM to understand it though. One of the retarding factors to our economy lately has been the high cost of fuel. While investments in the energy sector have done well, the effect on the rest of the economy has been similar to a sudden TAX. Changes in the tax law often motivate behaviors. When Reagan lowered the capital gains rate, it unlocked gains that investors had been unwilling to pay taxes on. When Clinton raised taxes, many people took their gains ahead of the tax. These are reactions to expected changes in tax law. Sudden unexpected taxes cause havoc. Businesses and people were not planning for them, so the costs are not built in to their pricing. People would laugh at me if I was desperately looking for some scarce resource and possessed it but was unwilling to use it. Let’s say I was a jeweler and had a full ingot of gold in my front window and ran around town asking people to sell me some gold to make jewelry with. They would say "Peter I know where some is that you can use" When I asked where they would laugh at me as the replied, "in you front window." Arabs are laughing at America while they jack up prices.

To: JDN who wrote (672164)	2/14/2005 11:55:55 AM
From: George Coyne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Buddy seems to feel it would mean only that we would have to drive less on our personal vacations.

To: JDN who wrote (672164)	2/14/2005 4:36:29 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

"a $1 a gal gas tax increase would drive up the cost of EVERYTHING, cost MANY JOBS and vastly REDUCE Federal Revenues and PAYROLL TAX receipts." It would reduce the use of oil by increasing it's cost... but a matching decrease in payroll or income taxes would more then offset the negative effects on economic growth, as our economy is much less sensitive to pricing changes in oil then it previously was. "they could give tax rebates to people who buy hybrids, we could make it easier and cheaper to build nuclear power plants." You propose exchanging one form of national industrial policy for yet another. (I actually believe that the best way to encourage a rational market-based approach to energy usage in america would be to eliminate ALL the subsidies we give to various energy sources and transportation modalities --- and let them ALL fight it out in a free market. For example: nuclear energy has received (and still is) massive government subsidies, oil, coal are subsidized, solar and wind receive subsidies... air transportation is subsidized, rail transportation, surface vehicular transportation, etc., etc. I personally don't believe that piling yet more subsidies on is an efficient method for achieving our society's goals.)