Gas Tax Holiday Is Dead! Long Live The Gas Tax!

When John McCain and then-candidate Hillary Clinton proposed a holiday on the federal gas tax, most observers laughed their proposal up into the fodder of Presidential politics. A temporary repeal would only serve a small temporary relief while the price of oil could easily eat the benefit by trading up a few more dollars on Wall Street. Now the effort for a temporary repeal has met it's demise in Congress, but that isn't all.

From RawStory:

WASHINGTON -- The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.

Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded - with a prod from the construction industry - that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.

Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.

With gas prices setting records daily, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and former Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a 90-day suspension of the federal fuel tax to give drivers a little relief at the pump. The fuel taxes go into the Highway Trust Fund, which is used for road construction and repair and mass transit.

When McCain and Clinton made the proposition, they forgot about where that tax money goes. Since much of our general fund seems to be going to the military-industrial complex, a tax on gasoline goes right back to helping Americans get around, whether it be by road or rail. Ideally the money should come via the main budget and focused on mass transit, but we can not allow our roads to fall apart in the manner that they are currently.

Senator Menendez, Economists Do Make Policy

Sometimes being a Clinton supporter has its limitations, such as distorting one's view of reality. That happened to Senator Menendez from New Jersey this morning, as the "gas tax debate" continues on:



Economists do make policy, they work at institutions such as Cato, Rand, Center for American Progress and the Brennan Center, etc etc. and lawmakers like you use their findings to write legislation. Though other times it may just be done by a lobbyist so I could be wrong about that policy thing.

Oh and Bob, being the millionaire that you are, do you really believe that you feel the pains of average Americans?

I certainly don't.

Obama Is Correct On The Gas Tax

Eighteen cents a gallon isn't much of a savings, but economists agree that the short term benefit will produce long term shortfalls for our nation's infrastructure. McCain and Clinton are simply pandering on this issue, while Obama is being honest with the American people.

McCain Has The Sympathy Of A Rock

John McCain may have purposefully married into a big, beer-funded family to get rich, but that has no bearing on the fact that he can not understand what it is like to be poor, let alone be in touch with them now. Even more so, he has no right to say that Barack Obama is insensitive to poor people and especially for the petty little reason he tries to claim ground on.

From The Huffington Post:

"I noticed again today that Sen. Obama repeated his opposition to giving low-income Americans a tax break, a little bit of relief so they can travel a little further and a little longer, and maybe have a little bit of money left over to enjoy some other things in their lives," McCain said. "Obviously Sen. Obama does not understand that this would be a nice thing for Americans, and the special interests should not be dictating this policy."

The Arizona senator deflected questions about his record on the Bush administration's tax cuts _ he initially opposed them but now supports extending them _ by again criticizing Obama.

"Sen. Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax, which would have a direct effect on 100 million Americans," McCain said. "That means he has no understanding of the economy and that he is totally insensitive to the hopes and dreams and ambitions of 100 million Americans who will be affected by his almost doubling of the capital gains tax."

That little tax break would freeze the federal gas tax, which would lighten the load by 18.5 cents...initially. That money goes towards fixing our highways and finding transportation solutions that our nation so desperately needs. The real problem with gas prices is much deeper than cutting that tax. Gas prices could easily go up that much in a few weeks time, so our next President must cut our demand for gasoline and use alternate fuels to keep us going in the 21st century. As for that capital gains tax, the people that see real differences from the cut are nowhere near poor and honestly, that whole thing about reducing the capital gains tax to stimulate growth is a crock of shit.

McCain Tries To Psych People Out About The Gas Tax

"Mr. Straight Talk" is at it again, trying to pull the wool over our eyes from the economic realities of our day: