My, the gas tax holiday is a fine piece of pandering.

The first wave came from John McCain, who proposed a summer holiday – Memorial Day to Labor Day – for the federal gas taxes. That’s a whopping 18.4 cents for gasoline, 24.4 cents for diesel.

Tiny hangup: He didn’t say how to pay for it. So we have Hillary Clinton to the rescue, saying she will propose legislation to pay for the holiday by imposing a windfall profits tax on big oil companies. And she once again bashed Barack Obama for not jumping on this bandwagon.

Well, hurrah for Obama. At least one out of three is making some sense.

Not that the “few hundred bucks” he says the plan will save is insignificant. Most of us non-millionaires find it significant.

But come on, a three-month break from one tax? When gas prices are their highest, when we still have other fuel taxes to pay, when we still want money to repair our roads? Way to suck up – not.

And personally, if I were Big Oil, I’d be plenty sick by now of being the whipping boy all the time. When did we stop liking capitalism, and being grateful for companies that still choose to base their operations in the United States instead of overseas?

If someone, candidate or not, can find a way to make gasoline cheaper all the time, without shifty bookkeeping or little holidays that will hurt us later, I will be happy.

But stop insulting my intelligence and dignity by assuming any dollars dangled out ahead of me will turn me into a bouncing lap dog – and that includes the economic stimulus plan, too.

This post originally appeared on ourMidland.com, the online home of the Midland (MI) Daily News. Republished with permission.