As Jeff Miller on A Dash of Insight notes, Hillary and McCain are in favor of a plan that would make gas taxes go away for a while – just to help out the little people. How nice of them. Right? Not really.

Barack Obama along with every reachable economic authority on the vast expanse of the internet disagree. All that eliminating the eighteen cent tax on gasoline would do is make the same apparent quantity of gas available at a cheaper price – thus encouraging the increased consumption of gasoline. In these trying times for alternatives to environment unfriendly energy, increasing gasoline consumption is a big no-no.

Furthermore, if the gas supply is inelastic, the price will inflate itself back up to exactly the same place where it was before the tax was removed. This helps no one.

To be blunt, McCain or Clinton would not even be in a position to make this kind of impact on the gas prices. This is simple pandering to lower income voters and it’s deceitful. There is no doubt in my mind that McCain and Clinton understand why this plan would not work, they are simply doing it for votes.

We at Election Stocks applaud Barack Obama not only for his understanding of the crucial economics involved, but also for his guts to give the correct conclusion at the risk of losing crucial primaries.