There were also moves on energy efficiency, etc … Clinton Administration did stuff on energy, not nearly enough, but the ‘not nearly enough’ was driven to a tremendous extent by having a Republican Congress, imo.

In this case: Friedman is 100% on target.

Someone at Atrios’ place figured the 12 weeks would result in about $25 saving, a trifle to the commenter.

To those among the working poor, those on the sharp edge of this economy’s cutting down their standard of living, $25 is 6 to 10 or so gallons of milk. These are people who really do have to trade one gallon of milk for part or a gallon of gas. They cut down on their kids’ calcium in order to get to work to make the money to buy the gas to get to work.

This is dire for some in our nation.

And Clinton, imo, is offering a slight buffering of the pain for a while.

What should be done? Some kind of energy tax rebate to the poor? Gas/transportation stamps for the poor, something like food stamps?

This is only going to get worse. And buses, where they are available to the rural poor, are also increasing their ticket prices.

Clinton at least would have an excess profit tax on Big Oil, etc., which should have been done when the profits became as obscene as they are now. For no more work, but simply because they base profits on a percentage of their costs, they will make more and more and more profit as the base price of oil rises.

Note: I am not a ecnomist. But I do remember drinking powdered milk mixed in with real milk, in order to make our food budget stretch. It did not taste as good, btw.

As the July edition of the Washingtonian Magazine notes, Friedman lives in “a palatial 11,400-square-foot house, now valued at $9.3 million, on a 7½-acre parcel just blocks from I-495 and Bethesda Country Club.” He “married into one of the 100 richest families in the country” – the Bucksbaums, whose real-estate Empire is valued at $2.7 billion.