McCain 'resurrects' his call for a gas tax holiday. This is so unbelievably wrong. It's exactly the opposite of what we need. It might help some people in the short term, but it will hurt all of us in the long term. What will happen if gas prices decrease? Demand will increase. When demand increases prices go up. That's just economics 101. I'd even suggest that the price will quickly come back to where it is today. The people that it would help would be the gas station owners and the manufacturers.
What would help us is if we imposed a 100% tax on gas (I guess Perot was on the right track.) You must think I'm crazy, but hear me out. The proceeds from this tax should go toward alternative energy research. With gas prices that high, consumers will demand alternatives. When consumers demand something manufacturers create it. Long term, it's the way to go. Short term the world will be turned upside down for a lot of people. It could even plunge us into a massive global economic downturn. So maybe we gradually put that gas tax into place, say over 2, maybe 3 years. hmm, haven't has prices already doubled over the last 2 or 3 years? If we had imposed that tax then we'd have a lot of money earmarked for energy research. But who has that money now? Oil and gas companies. Do you trust them with alternative energy research? It might be better than the government dishing out the money. Point me to alternative energy research by oil and gas companies in the comments below.