Early Reviews Give the Idea a Handful of Thumbs-Down As a follow-up to the comments of Messrs. Mankiw and Berman regarding the notion of suspending the federal gas tax during the summer months, we submit for your consideration the substantiation offered by Sam Stein, Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, for the proposition that Expert Support For Gas Tax Holiday Appears Nonexistent, to wit:

• Tom Friedman of the Times: "so ridiculous...it takes your breath away"
• Jonathan Alter of Newsweek: "Hillary Clinton has now joined John McCain in proposing the most irresponsible policy idea of the year -- an idea that actually could aid the terrorists"
• Jerry Taylor, a fellow for the Cato Institute, called the proposal a "holiday from reality"
• Robert Shapiro, former undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration: ""Stated as clearly as I can, it's utterly misguided both environmentally and economically"
• Max Schulz, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute: "I think it is close to political pandering. It is bad policy and political gimmickry

This could go on all day. So we close on this note, from Ken Green, an energy expert for the American Enterprise Institute: "I'm afraid that your record is going to be unbroken in terms of finding someone who will like this idea."