Against highway tax cuts before she was for it
I repeatedly find instances of Hillary Clinton pandering some voter-catching two-bit policy, which is contradictory to policies Clinton has proposed in the past or runs afoul with her legislative record.
For example, Clinton has joined the McCain Pandering Express in a proposal to eliminate the federal highway tax during the summer months, and as usual, rapidly slams Obama for being against it.
Clinton Monday on highway taxes:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton lined up with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, in endorsing a plan to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for the summer travel season. But Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic rival, spoke out firmly against the proposal, saying it would save consumers little and do nothing to curtail oil consumption and imports. . . .
Mrs. Clinton said at a rally on Monday morning in Graham, N.C., that she would introduce legislation to impose a windfall-profits tax on oil companies and use the revenue to suspend the gasoline tax temporarily.
Mr. Obama derided the McCain-Clinton idea of a federal tax holiday as a “short-term, quick-fix” proposal that would do more harm than good, and said the money, which is earmarked for the federal highway trust fund, is badly needed to maintain the nation’s roads and bridges.”
Rewind. Clinton in 2000 on highway taxes: (h/t kos).
Campaigning in the Hudson Valley, Lazio continued a two-day assault on Clinton’s support of maintaining the 18-cent federal gas tax and then used tough rhetoric to declare that "trust" and "character" were campaign issues during an evening fundraiser in Manhattan that raised more that $1 million.
Clinton, meanwhile, lashed out at Lazio’s plan to repeal 4.3 cents of the gas tax, calling it "a bad deal for New York and a potential bonanza for the oil companies."
During a visit to a shopping mall in the Buffalo suburbs, Clinton said that "the gas tax is one of the few exceptions where we actually get more money back than we send to Washington."
Moreover, consider how Paul Krugman characterized McCain’s tax policies, which Clinton also seeks to implement.
[A] look at what Mr. McCain says about taxes shows the same combination of irresponsibility and double-talk that, back in 2000, foreshadowed the character of the Bush administration.
Krugman continues:
If truth be told, the McCain tax plan doesn’t seem to embody any coherent policy agenda. Instead, it looks like a giant exercise in pandering — an attempt to mollify the G.O.P.’s right wing, and never mind if it makes any sense.
The impression that Mr. McCain’s tax talk is all about pandering is reinforced by his proposal for a summer gas tax holiday — a measure that would, in fact, do little to help consumers, although it would boost oil industry profits.
More and more, Mr. McCain sounds like a man who will say anything to become president.
There you have it. Straight from one of Hillary’s most ardent supporters.
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