All the interwebs have been abuzz with the "gas tax holiday" pander-fest from McCain and Clinton. Turns out, everyone loves a holiday so much that it's been a rare moment of unity. It's been bipartisanly slammed by the MSM, both hemispheres of the blogs, and pretty much everybody else.

Why is it stupid? For starters, there's the math: shaving the federal tax rate of 18.4 cents off the price a $4.00 gallon isn't even a 5 percent cut. It's simply not a lot. Plus, gas prices are rocketing up so fast right that the one-time cut would barely register as a blip. A recent nationwide survey found prices at the pump up 15 cents, just in the last two weeks.

Sure, there's some argument about the precise causes, but much of the dynamic simply comes down to supply and demand. As economists are fond of pointing out, gas prices are high now -- and they have historically been high in the summertime -- because demand is up. As you learn in the first week of Econ 101 (and apparently un-learn in the first week of Running For Office 101): when demand is up but supply isn't, then prices go up too.

But McCain and Clinton apparently know better than to succumb to that smarty-pants logic of supply and demand. Here's Clinton on ABC's "This Week": 

I'm not going to put in my lot with economists... Elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantages the vast majority of Americans.

Take that you freedom-hating economists.

However, one low-income audience member smartly replied: "Call me crazy, but I listen to economists because I think I know what they studied."

Perhaps most annoyingly, it's precisely the wrong 18.4 cents to cut. Together with state gas taxes it's the only portion of your gas bill that comes back to you. The rest of it -- the stuff that's not public revenue -- goes to line the pockets of oil company execs and shareholders.

As Paul Krugman explains:

Cut taxes, and all that happens is that the pretax price rises by the same amount. The McCain gas tax plan is a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers... So it's Econ 101: the tax cut really goes to the oil companies.

Just the kind of thing you might expect to hear from an economist.

The whole thing would be funny if the stakes weren't so high. In our refusal to develop serious alternatives to driving -- most of us need a car for virtually every trip -- we've concocted the perfect recipe to wreck household finances when prices go high. Plus, you know the drill about oil addiction and its apocalyptic horsemen: we invade countries, cuddle up with Middle Eastern theocracies, relegate our cities (and suburbs) to terrible traffic congestion, and we have to keep listening to Al Gore rant about the global warmings.

Speaking of global warming, it's no small curiosity that both Clinton and McCain have also endorsed carbon cap and trade programs. Cap and trade restricts the supply of carbon, which would raise the price of carbon and -- you see where I'm going -- therefore raises the price of gas.

So what gives? Is the gas tax holiday just a fantasy?

Probably. But it's a lovely fantasy, isn't it? It's the sort of thing we should try more often. If we close our eyes and wish really hard, we can make a holiday for anything we want.

Anything at all.

Personally, I'd like a holiday from not-having-a-sandwich-right-now. When I'm feeling more civic-minded, I'll wish for a holiday from the Iraq War. Later on, maybe we can talk about a holiday from abrogating habeas corpus. But maybe the best kind of holiday would be something that all Americans could agree on: a holiday from election year politics.