The energy crisis may be about to get even more desperate, thanks to John McCain. The price of gasoline has gone up by almost two dollars since the 2004 presidential election. Half of that increase has been over just the last year, and gasoline prices are going even higher by the time we reach summer.

What’s John McCain’s bright idea for dealing with this crisis? He thinks he can solve the problem by reducing the price of gasoline by 18.4 cents per gall. 18.4 measly little cents.

Who does McCain think he’s kidding? He thinks he can get people to agree to this plan by calling it a “tax cut”. McCain is proposing legislation to cut federal gasoline taxes, which are, in fact, already the lowest among all the industrial nations on Earth.

It gets worse. Guess where that 18.4 cents per gallon is going to go? It’s not going to go into your pocket. That’s because, as economists explain, a temporary reduction in the price of gasoline will stimulate purchases of gasoline, which will actually drive the price of gasoline up, not down, over the long term. ”

That price increase, without any taxes paid on it, will funnel huge amounts of money into the pockets of big oil corporations. “Higher demand just pushes the world price a bit higher, giving a sizable share of the tax refund to oil producers,” explains Lee Schipper, an energy expert from the University of California.

But where does that money come from? Not out of thin air. It will come from the 10 billion dollar increase in the federal budget deficit that will result from John McCain’s dirty scheme. American taxpayers will have to pay that 10 billion dollars back, plus interest.

A summary of the results of John McCain’s oil scheme:
- You don’t actually pay less for a gallon of gasoline
- The federal budget deficit increases by 10 billion dollars
- Oil companies take the money
- There’s even less gasoline available than before

If this is John McCain’s vision of leadership, American voters need to run away from him as possible, screaming out a warning to anyone who will listen. John McCain promises to take America out of the frying pan, into the fire, and then pour gasoline on it all.