So, I'm seeing a story running on CNN (yeah, every now and then I can't avoid seeing content from that particular outlet) about how U.S. Presidential candidate and erstwhile U.S. Senator from Arizona John McCain wants to help provide an even bigger and better stimulus for the U.S. economy ... by suspending (I assume) Federal gasoline taxes over the summer.

This coming from the same John McCain that has complained about pork barrel politics and government handouts (as well as deficit spending) for years and years.  Apparently he 'woke up' while dreaming happy thoughts about perhaps being the next President of the United States, and realized that the U.S. economy is hurting and needs an even greater stimulus than what the tax pre-bate that is coming next month will really provide.  Further, he seems to have been influenced by the likes of the Travel Industry Association (http://www.tia.org/) and others that preach that travel is one of the big cogs in the U.S. economic machine.

I don't necessarily disagree with the idea that travel is important to the U.S., and I really don't like paying more in taxes than I have to, but I still think McCain -- and anyone else that wants to talk about reducing the gasoline tax -- is completely wrong here.  In fact, I've said before, and still stand by those words, that we should be raising gasoline taxes and letting nature take it's course in DISCOURAGING unnecessary travel in this country.  We must reduce gasoline consumption (as we continue to explore and develop alternative fuels for powering our transportation desires and needs) and the sooner we can do it and get to a point where we can tell a bunch of middle-easterners that they can keep their friggin' oil while we keep our corn and other food products (or sell those same products to them at greatly inflated prices) the better off we'll be.

McCain clearly has good intentions here, and yes, leaving money in consumers pockets is a good idea, but then again no sooner would the extra money from suspending the gasoline taxes be in our pockets than we'd be turning around and questioning why the tax man is digging even deeper in those same pockets to get money for fixing roadways, bridges, and other 'infrastructure' needs across the country.  Touching the gasoline taxes (other than perhaps to raise them to discourage unnecessary travel) is just the wrong idea, even if it seems to be the right time for it.

If McCain really wants to do something to encourage the economy and provide consumers with confidence, he really should be talking about the idea of getting companies (employers) in this country (the U.S.A.) to switch more employees to a 4 day work week.  Get the workers off the roads 20% of their normal travel days and you'll save those workers 20% in work-related travel costs.  At the same time, raise the gasoline taxes (not the diesel fuel taxes, just the gasoline taxes) 5 to 10 cents a gallon to help rack up funds to spend on infrastructure work (new road building, bridge repairs, new bridge building, perhaps some power plant building, or wind power generator deployment, or even solar power deployment) that can be used to stimulate the economy in a positive manner.  By raising gasoline taxes at the same time you're getting as many employees as possible that 5th day off from work, you'd be discouraging them from driving when they don't need to and counter-balancing the 20% in potential travel cost savings with a few percent increase in travel costs (to cover the new gasoline taxes).

In addition, McCain (and his competitors in the run for the White House too!) should be encouraging more companies to support telecommuting and the use of satellite offices so that employees wouldn't necessarily need to travel to the traditional office to do their work.  Again, get as many people as you can OFF THE ROADS and have them stop using their cars, trucks, SUVs and mini-vans when possible.  As another side benefit, by getting those vehicles off the roads you'd be prolonging the road surfaces and keeping them from needing repairs as quickly so that what work is done to repair them will last longer, and the work that goes into building them would last longer as well.

This is all part of a very big and very delicate balancing act.  The U.S. economy is a complex beast and making the wrong changes can cause more harm than good.  Any change that is made, even with the best of intentions, has to be clearly thought through and looked at from multiple angles to determine whether or not the anticipated benefits can be attained, and at the same time to figure out what unexpected and unintended consequences might pop up along the way.

I certainly hope that we can get it right, and hope that the right changes are made to really kick start the economy in this country.  If the wrong moves are made, I fear the time it will take to realize those mistakes and then later to correct them, even as too many people lose their homes, their jobs, and their wealth.