Any Other Bright Ideas, Jerks?

The Republican plan of putting $100 back into the hands of consumers was laughed at by Democrats, but now the conservative Cato Institute has joined in:

"It could be one of the dumbest ideas of the year," said Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at the conservative Cato Institute. "I haven't looked at all of the ideas yet, but it's got to be right up there."

Taylor pointed out that as proposed, the rebate would go only to people who paid federal income tax last year, meaning it would be no help at all to the millions of low-income Americans who pay no income taxes but arguably suffer the most in times of rising fuel prices. About 100 million taxpayers would qualify for the rebate, which would be limited to filers with incomes under $150,000 for couples or about $100,000 for singles. It would cost more than $10 billion.

Not only that, but the same tax rebate would go to the Wall Street trader who takes the subway to work every day and to the rural Wisconsin farmer who uses thousands of gallons of fuel in his business, Taylor noted.

It's not really a compensation for higher gas prices," Taylor said. "It's simply a please-vote-for-me-in-November payment."

John Berthoud, president of the National Taxpayers Union, which like Cato generally supports lower taxes and a more limited government, described the GOP proposal as "almost 100 percent political pandering."

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