Re: Mr Phony says "NO" to tax cut

On May 4, 5:24 pm, Alan Lichtenstein <a...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mark Avana wrote:
Barak Obama calls the Gas Tax Holiday phony.

Phil Singer, a spokesman for Clinton, responded, "Considering that Sen.
Obama voted to suspend the gas tax three times when gas cost less than
$2 a gallon and has an energy lobbyist chairing his Indiana campaign,
it's hard to take his latest criticisms very seriously."

This is one of the few things Obama has said which has a modicum of
accuracy. He's right that suspending the gas tax will give most people
an insubstantial relief from the price of gasoline and do little for the
long range problem, but he's wrong about the deleterious effects it will
have on the Highway Trust Fund, which receives the proceeds of the tax.
The Trust Fund is well funded, even now, and a brief 90 day holiday,
won't put much of a dent in its reserves.

Given that, the relief from the gas tax is really nothing more than a
feel-good solution, why is Obama against letting the public feel a
little better, especially when it won't cause any fiscal problems?

Voters need to make up their minds whether they want a president who
is going to offer another 8 years of gimmicks, smoke and mirrors and
bait and switch, etc. If they do they can vote for candidates who
propose this kind of crap.

The Highway Trust Fund, incidentally, doesn't have all that much
money:

"Federal Highway Trust Fund Set to Face Shortfall in 2009
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A cash crunch is fast approaching for the government
trust fund that pays to build and repair highways and bridges.

The federal tax on a gallon of gas has not risen in 14 years and
Congress is reluctant to increase it. People are demanding more fuel-
efficient vehicles — less gasoline used, fewer dollars for the fund.

States already are looking for other places for road-building money —
toll road and consumption-based sales taxes, for example. They worry
that the fund's looming shortage could hurt their efforts to address
traffic congestion as well as environmental and safety problems caused
by inadequate roads.

The situation can only get worse in 2009, when revenues for the
Federal Highway Trust Fund begin falling short of planned federal
spending.

The fund provides the overwhelming bulk of federal dollars spent on
highways. It gets its money mainly from the 18.4 cents-a-gallon excise
tax that drivers pay at the pump.

Self-service regular now tops $3 a gallon. There is concern the price
will reach a price at which people will get serious about cutting back
on driving — sending less money into the fund. Fuel tax receipts did
dip last summer when there was a spike in pump prices. . ."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,274113,00.html


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Why the gas tax could go up
    ... 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. ... Depriving the 52-year-old Highway Trust Fund of $9 billion at a time when it is heading into the red doomed the notion of a gas tax holiday in Congress. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Why the gas tax could go up
    ... WASHINGTON -- The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died ... The fuel taxes go into the Highway Trust ... "Because the trust fund is already looking at a looming shortfall, ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Why the gas tax could go up
    ... WASHINGTON -- The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died ... The fuel taxes go into the Highway Trust ... "Because the trust fund is already looking at a looming shortfall, ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Why the gas tax could go up
    ... 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. ... Depriving the 52-year-old Highway Trust Fund of $9 billion at a time when it is heading into the red doomed the notion of a gas tax holiday in Congress. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Economists blast Clinton-McCain gas tax holiday as bad idea
    ... Economists also saw it is a poor way of getting money to the ... the tax cut really goes to the oil companies," he ... A gas tax holiday proposed by U.S. presidential hopefuls John McCain ...
    (soc.retirement)
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