John McCain is at least consistent, in his notion that we should get relief from the federal gas tax for a few months and just add it to the tab. Hillary Clinton thinks we should have it and pay with an excess profits tax. If for no other reason, I think I'd support Barack Obama for calling this the folly that it is.
We are not in this situation because of greed. Everyone is greedy and always has been, yet five years ago, petroleum fetched about a third of what it does now. The change has been supply and demand, notably the rapid rise of Chinese consumption.
What we need is not a drop in the tax, but a $1 increase. The intent would be to deliberately reduce U.S. demand, which would lead to lower prices for the product. The net effect would be less than $1 for Americans. In the longer term, we could reduce demand by advancing our technology, and we should but we can't do this overnight.
Any demagogic proposal to cut the tax this summer, when supply pressure is already likely to be at its worst, should be denounced. Obama wins this one.
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