A NATION OF IDIOTS

Imagine this scenario: The oil companies, out of sympathy for the overburdened car owners, declare a gas holiday between Memorial Day and Labor Day and drop the price of a gallon of gas between 10 and 20 cents. Would you be in favor of such a proposal by Big Oil? Of course you would. What possible reason would you have not to approve of this action?

In a recent poll, 60 percent of respondents said they opposed the gas tax holiday proposed by both Senators McCain and Clinton. The only rationale I can think of that would garner such polling results is that 99 percent of those who opposed the idea had recently undergone lobotomies. All of us, rich and poor,are bitching about rising gas prices--and rightfully so. Along comes two powerful senators who offer a temporary, albeit small reprieve from high gas prices and a majority of Americans are against it. HELP ME UNDERTAND THIS THOUGHT PROCESS! Have we become a nation of mush-brained, dumbdowned idiots?

I'm sure most of us recall the old proverb about not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Well, apparently too many of my fellow Americans currently have their heads stuck in the horse's larynx. The major complaint is that this tax holiday is a gimmick and outright pandering. Maybe it is, but so what? Anytime the Feds are willing to relinquish tax dollars is a time for national celebration, especially when this tax break occurs during the busiest driving period of the entire year.

Americans have forgotten. or perhaps never learned one important fact: Taxation is theft. It is the theft of honestly earned wages from the pockets of working people. Taxes are the moral equivalent of a mugging or paying protection money to organized crime. It is the initiation of force against citizens. Don't believe me? Try not paying your taxes for a few years and see what government force is really about.

If you were mugged in a dark alley one night, and the same mugger came to your door the next day to return your money, would you refuse to take it? Neither would I.Afterall, we're not idiots.

GAS TAX HOLIDAY

Both John McCain and Hillary Clinton have suggested suspending the Federal tax on gasoline throughout the summer as a way of easing the sting of soaring gas prices on the budgets of consumers. Barack Obama has called this a gimmick and pandering to voters. It may be a gimmick and it may be pandering, but so what? I am sure an overwhelming majority of Americans would welcome some relief at the gas pumps, no matter how small or how short the duration. How can putting more money into the pockets of working people be a bad thing?

Politicians love to demigogue the oil issue and attack the oil companies, decrying what they love to call "obscene profits." But what about the obscene profits being made by all levels of government as a result of soaring gas prices? Whether its local, state or Federal, government has been raking in huge tax revenues during this run-up. Why is it perfectly permissible for government to make huge profits at the gas pump, but not the oil companies?

Suspending the Federal gas tax over the summer is the right thing to do. No, it won't solve the oil crisis or permanently bring down prices. Government has already dropped the ball in that regard by refusing to permit drilling in Alaska, the Gulf, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Politicians should at least do the moral thing and temorarily rescind all taxes on gasoline because taxation is theft, regardless of who or what is being taxed.

Americans desperately need gas relief, and they won't find it in their medicine cabinets. It's a prescription only Washington can provide.