As I said here, it seems to me that federal subsidies of ethanol fuel are every bit as dumb of a federal policy as the much-derided push for a temporary repeal of the gas tax. Which is to say, they’re mind-bogglingly dumb. And that’s why I agree with Andrew Sullivan and Phil Klein that John McCain deserves an awful lot of credit for this:
“I oppose subsidies,” McCain said. “Not just ethanol subsidies. Subsidies. And not just in Iowa either. I oppose them in my own state of Arizona. I am proud of the conservative tradition that the government can sometimes best serve the interests of the American people by knowing when to stay out of their way.”
It is, of course, a damn shame that the same sort of restraint can’t apply to the trillion-dollar war effort, and I’m willing to bet that political observers more astute than me can find plenty of places where Senator McCain has both spoken and voted in favor of subsidies. But to say something like this to a bunch of bioenergy types in the heart of Iowa that ethanol subsidies is pretty much the ultimate non-pander. Bravo.
[UPDATE: Clark Stooksbury reminds us that this is indeed the exception rather than the rule:
The Arizona senator favors a cap-and-trade plan for carbon emission that would surely raise gas prices, yet he also is pandering to voters with his idiotic gas tax holiday plan. McCain also opposes drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, as Hugh Hewitt angrily noted back in January ...
Read Ross Douthat for more of the same. Vive la démocratie!]
Filed under: conservatism, politics
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