$100 and a mule.

exams suck. there are so many good stories to blog about, and they're passing me by like so much sand in the hourglass. but alas, i couldn't resist a quick note about the new proposal by republican senators to send every single american taxpayer a $100 check to help offset the rising cost of gas.

i'm angry about the cost of grapes. can i have a govt check for 75 cents? is this any kind of solution? it strikes me as absurd that the wealthiest american, driving around in a hummer and sipping a goblet of 10w30, gets the same check as a lower-middle class american, driving around in a hybrid he can barely make payments on. the only appropriate way to do a repayment program like this is to give the money to people who need and/or deserve it. and that simply raises administrative costs to the point where we're spending more figuring out who gets the money than we are repaying those folks. point is, this is a ridiculous proposal and one that should be rejected out of hand. the fact that republicans are tying the repayment plan to an emergency appopriation bill for iraq/katrina relief, and including a provision for oil drilling in anwar, is absurd.

dems should be knocking the gas price issue out of the ballpark. it's almost redundant to say that republicans are tied to oil interests. republicans are oil interests. i'm not saying dems should be telling the nation they have all the answers. our dependence on oil is a complicated problem; one that has developed over many decades. but you can't possibly expect any progress when the govt is controlled by politicians entirely beholden to the oil companies. and seeing as there are only two political parties, that means...

and for goodness sakes. you people elected an oil tycoon, a modern-day-john-rockefeller, to the white house. what did you think was gonna happen to the price of gas? expecting george bush to get 'tough' on 'big oil' is akin to appointing bill gates to head up the ftc and looking for lower prices on your next copy of windows vista. don't hold your breath.

i am willing to put some of the blame on clinton for this. the federal govt allowed a rash of big oil company mergers in the late 90s, on clinton's watch. it strikes me that these mergers must make it easier for the remaining oil conglomerates to collude on supply and price. in hindsight (actually a lot of people had foresight on this), the govt could probably have stalled some of this mess by blocking all those mergers. exxon/mobil. bp/amoco. bp-amoco/arco. etc/etc.

in any event, no one is fooled by the $100 check. i mean, don't get me wrong. i'll take it. no risk of me sending mine back. but this is such an empty maneuver it's laughable. demand more now.

UPDATE: I just noticed in another article that the rebate check is not for every taxpayers. it's for single taxpayers with income less than $125k, and joint taxpayers with income under $150k. not as bad as i had previously thought. but foolish and unproductive, nonetheless.