A Stitch in Haste

It must be an election year:

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ITEM: Many senators are, for example, up for re-election --

Senate Republicans advocate sending $100 rebate checks to millions of taxpayers, and a Democrat is leading the campaign for a 60-day gasoline tax holiday.

Either way, it seems no one in Congress wants to be without a plan, however symbolic, to attack the election-year spike in gasoline prices.

A vote is possible as early as this week on the Senate GOP approach, which calls for $100 rebate checks for taxpayers to cushion the impact of higher gasoline prices.

MY TAKE: I'm confused: Is this to be a gasoline tax rebate or an income tax rebate? The former would be impossible to implement and the latter makes no sense. I pay income tax (lots of it), but I don't own a car and buy no gasoline. So do I need or deserve a gas-inspired tax rebate? Likewise, the self-employed already get to deduct fuel costs from their income taxes. So again, where is the connection between gas prices and income taxes?

The connection between gas prices and Election Day is, on the other hand, crystal clear. Go figure.

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ITEM: But not everyone is up for re-election this year:

It appears [New York State] taxpayers can forget about those $400 rebate checks, despite the state's multibillion-dollar surplus.

State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said negotiations between legislative leaders and Gov. Pataki have failed to overcome the governor's veto of the rebates.
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The rebate checks were to have been sent out weeks before Election Day.

MY TAKE: There was a time when it was illegal to try to buy a vote. It's still illegal for corporate directors to sell their votes. So remind me again who are the "greedy and corrupt sleazeballs" among our elites and who are the "dedicated public servants"?

I've blasted tax rebate checks as applied by another miserable hack politician (who got the idea from yet another miserable hack politician) previously. I'm not lamenting the deadlocked wranglings of Albany's ruling triumvirate that will keep the checks from being issued (for now). The proper (and efficient) was to reduce taxes is of course by reducing tax rates, not taking the money and then sending a smidgen of it back in the form of a well-timed rebate check.

What I'm lamenting is the apparent inability of the median voter to see through the brazen manipulation they are being subjected to. Those who refuse to see are neither blind nor innocent.