BCT Editorial – 7/24/08

This page was last updated on July 24, 2008.

Inflated; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 24, 2008.

There’s no question the federal fuel tax holiday proposal was nothing but pandering and I discussed it previously in my critique of “Trolling for votes” (4/23/08).

Regarding the “Even the tax-pandering Bush White House gave this proposal the cold shoulder” comment, when did it become pandering to allow people to keep more of what they earn. FYI, the editorial fails to note the average family eventually turns over nearly 33% of its income to all levels of government. This is near the all time high of 34% in 2000. That’s some pandering.

Finally, I get a kick out of the Times transparency regarding Mr. McCain. Overall, the Times looked favorably on Mr. McCain until he became the presumptive Republican nominee for President. For example, editorials gushed “McCain and Lieberman - wouldn’t that be a great presidential ticket?” (“Good company,” 5/20/04), called Mr. McCain a “principled Republican” (“Angry electorate,” 11/10/06), and defended him against “positively apoplectic” conservatives who weren’t exactly enamored with him (“Political poison,” 2/10/08). Since April, however, the Times treatment of Mr. McCain has changed drastically. I wonder why. <g>