McCain the Populist

John McCain is trying his hand at economic populism, calling for a gas tax "holiday," saving drivers a whopping 18.4 cents per gallon, with gas prices up 6 times that much over the last 18 months. This is the same McCain whose own economic stimulus plan only benefits corporations, and who skipped the Senate vote on its much bigger consumer stimulus plan. Temporary tax rebates and government handouts are the same thing, so the lesson is: handouts are good when they're small and insignificant, but bad when they might actually help people.
His gas tax holiday would cost an estimated $10 billion. That money would pay for the revived G.I. bill which he opposes two and a half times over. The war he supports costs $3-4 billion every week. Rather than cut taxes on corporations at a time when the deficit is at an all-time high, and lower the cost of fuel when slowing global warming should be a top priority, wouldn't it make more sense to cut war spending (which creates nothing productive), and divert a tiny portion of the freed-up funds to rebuilding infrastructure and investing in renewable energy (one that will not cause an international food crisis, please), which will create jobs in the short run and whole new industries in the long run? The private sector failed to do that over the last decade, and it wasn't because corporate taxes were too high.