Sunday,
May 04, 2008Hillary
Clinton Doesn't Listen to Economists by Robert Reich When asked
this morning by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos if she could name a
single economist who backs her call for a gas tax holiday thissummer, HRC said
"I'm not going to put my lot in witheconomists.”
I know several of the economists who have beenadvising Senator Clinton, so I
phoned them right after I heard this.I reached two of them. One hadn’t heard
her remark and said hecouldn’t believe she’d say it. The other had heard it
andshrugged it off as “politics as usual.”
That’s theproblem: Politics as usual.
The gas tax holiday is smallpotatoes relative to everything else. But it’s so
economicallystupid (it would increase demand for gas and cause prices to
rise,eliminating any benefit to consumers while costing the Treasury morethan
$9 billion, and generate more pollution) and silly (even if shewon, HRC won’t
be president this summer) as to be worrisome. ThatHRC now says she doesn’t care
that what economists think is evenmore troubling.
In case you’ve missed it, we now have apresident who doesn’t care what most
economists think. George W.Bush doesn’t even care what scientists think. He
rejects allexperts who disagree with his politics. This has led to
someextraordinarily stupid policies.
I’m not saying HRC isGeorge Bush. And I'm not suggesting economists have all
the answers.But when economists tell a president or a presidential candidate
thathis or her idea is dumb – and when all respectable economistsaround America
agree that it’s a dumb idea – it’s probably wisefor the president or
presidential candidate to listen. When thepresident or candidate doesn’t, and
proudly defends the policy bysaying she's "not going to put my lot in with
economists,”we’ve got a problem, folks.
Even though the summer gas taxholiday is pure hokum, it polls well, which is
why HRC and JohnMcCain are pushing it. That Barack Obama is not in favor of
itdespite its positive polling numbers speaks volumes about the kind
ofpresident he’ll be – and the kind of president we’d otherwiseget from McCain
and HRC.
Haven’t we had enough ofpoliticians who reject facts in favor of short-term
poll-drivenpolitics?
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