Gas Tax Holiday A Political Gift To Obama

The heated presidential campaign battle over a federal gas tax holiday turned out to be a much needed gift for Barack Obama -- and he can thank Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The fight, which dominated the final days before the North Carolina and Indiana contests, gave him an opening to talk about the economy with working-class voters and helped Obama at least temporarily bury the controversy about his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[faretheewell]

Character and reason rear their ugly heads yet again. Hillary's argument boiled down to "Your vote is worth the $25 this will save you." That was her justification for people to support her. That and white voters won't support a black candidate.

If that's all there was to vote on, I'd stay home. It would cost a few bucks to travel to my polling place.

[sparkandy]

Well, Obama's right and the others are wrong. I'm no Obama supporter, but I'm with him on this one. He's the only one who's shown any sense on this gas tax thing.

[uheardme]

I guess her "experience" failed her AGAIN.

[the964kid]

Gotta love political arrogance - thank you Hillary.

[HumeSkeptic]

McCain said bomb Iran - Hillary said Nuke Iran- Obama said "No, let's find a better way""
McCain said gas tax holiday-Hillary said gas tax holiday- Obama said "No, let's do this right"

Time and again, Hillary has followed the Republicans and the NeoCons, especially on war. Time and again Obama has taken a different approach, a wiser, more peaceful, long-term approach.

[olivia]

The MSM needs to let go of HRC who is the new train wreck replacing Britney.

They need to cover stuff like this.

[harriscrl3]

Barack Obama is a brilliant man contrary to his oppents thinking and its that brilliance that will put him in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He must be a Chess player because he knows how to surround his oppoents corner them and they have no choice but to behave EXACTLY how he wants them to behave. Take McCain he is going to run an honorable campaign yet behind the scenes he is running a negative campaign. Obama said he is losing his bearings because he is going negative after giving his word that he wont. But see John McCain has no choice he Has to run a negative campaign because if he keeps it on policy Obama would wipe the floor with him. So he has to make it about Obama and who he is and when he does that he is cornered its politics as usual. Thats what happened with the gas tax. Hilary was so thrilled to finally find a difference in policy between them and you saw how that went. You have to go negative against Obama its the only way you have a shot and when you got negative He's got you right where he wants you.

Carol

[rollingdivision]

"Obama took a different view on the issue when he was an Illinois legislator, voting at least three times in favor of temporarily lifting the state's 5 percent sales tax on gasoline.

The tax holiday was finally approved during a special session in June of 2000, when Illinois motorists were furious that gas prices had just topped $2 a gallon in Chicago.

During one debate, he joked that he wanted signs on gas pumps in his district to say, "Senator Obama reduced your gasoline prices." " CBS News

[jsarets]

A state gas tax holiday is a completely different animal than a national gas tax holiday. From one state's perspective, there may actually be some economic basis for suspending consumption taxes during hard times. However, it has an adverse effect on other states, especially neighboring states, and it doesn't work if many states do it together.

The bottom line on Illinois gas tax holiday was that less than 60% of the tax cut was passed onto the consumer. I suppose you could say it worked, but as tax-cut stimulus goes, cutting a consumption tax on a commodity like gasoline is just about the worst conceivable approach.

I agree with your comment below that consumption taxes are regressive, and as a progressive, I believe that they should be eliminated. But a production tax on oil companies is the same as a consumption tax on gasoline. They're both regressive.

I support one tax: an individual income tax. No corporate taxes, no sales taxes, and no break on capital gains. Any income above the poverty level is taxed at a flat rate, and any income above 5 times the poverty level is also subject to a flat poverty tax that makes up the revenue on untaxed income.

In this system, the wealthy and to a lesser extent the upper middle-class have an incentive to make economic and political decisions that help reduce poverty. It's not about punishing rich people, it's about fighting poverty and otherwise apportioning tax burden according to income.

[TheAdviceWeAllNeed]

Go back and do some research from the past and the current. Once you do that, then you will find why he is against the so call Holiday Tax.

But you must be a republican because you posted half the truth and in away to try to support your argument.

As you can see you don"t hear John McCain talking about this anymore.

[SugarMan]

That's right. Obama learned his lesson well in Illinois. They tried lifting the gas tax in Illinois and it didn't work. He was paying attention. Thank Goodness.
Why make the same mistake again. He knows what he's talking about., Hillary and McCain are blissfully ignorant and got a wakeup call.

[rollingdivision]

Why do you support taxing the poor? As a matter of principle progressives should against all regressive taxes like gasoline taxes. Now, they don"t know the meaning of the phrase "regressive tax" and are for them, because their messiah says he"s for regressive taxes. Back during the politics of the past, Democrats were adamantly against all regressive taxes because regressive taxation places the tax burden on low income people. Sad, but forgive them, they don"t understand what they are supporting.

[Grunty1]

Rolling is a Republican plant from before the primaries even started. As annoying as he is, he gets some credit for being one of the few regular trolls who didn't go underground as a fake Hillary supporter (or at least kept using his usual name also)

[TheShadow]

Obama's "Gift"?

No, more like Clinton's "Gaff".

[imusintheevening]

McSame and Sillary tried to pander to the Least Common Denominator but they went too far and exposed themselves as greater fools than the average populace.

Truth trumps trickery

[filo]

I said yesterday that we were never going to hear any more about the gas tax holiday from Hilliary.

So far that has held true. I think she's worried how she is going to pay off her campaigns debt.

[spaceman3838]

scarbrough said it best today if barack obama would of been for the gas tax holiday the media whores that are all for him and all the little obama cultists would of been for it to. scarbrough got you people's number down pat.

[Stace]

First off spaceman, the term is "would HAVE" not "would OF" jeeze - if you're going to insult someone at least type properly.

Secondly, anyone who finds anything "compelling" about what crybaby suck up Joe Scuzbrough says needs a head check.

No disrespect - I'm just sayin' dude...seriously...

[Grunty1]

You are wrong. Read some other threads about Hillary's debt or limiting donations. Obama's supporters are very willing to call things as they see them.

[nomobull]

yeah clueless joe a good source to quote. not!

[olivia]

Will the media please stop giving all the space to Hillary's train wreck and start covering the issues?

America is hurting, there is much work to be done, and the MSM will not drop her.

[Teritt]

I just want to know if she's running the same gas tax commercials in WV that she ran in IN & NC...ok anyone in WV - is she still trying to push it there?

[DRaymond]

I agree, not only did it allow them to take the attention away from Wright, but also flag pins, Ayers, and a lot of other junk.

It seemed almost delightfull to be back to a matter of government policy, certainly not a huge issue of policy, but clearly a question of whether or not the government should take a specific action.

It also did Obama a world of help when conservationists and economists universally came out against Clinton's idea, and even better when Clinton dismissed them out of hand as 'Elitist'.

[mybelovedcountry]

and the truth shall set you free...

[wm1066]

No this was not handed to him. It was his own ability to speak the truth and say the truth that got him on top of this issue. And good for him. This is why his poll numbers keep going up. He isn't pandering.
He is treating Americans as intellegent people that can see through the lies.
I don't think many people in congress understand just how much Americans are paying attention since bush "screwed the pooch". They act like we aren't looking. But Barack knows better.
This wasn't "handed" to him, he won it by doing the right thing.

[InfoGiant]

No doubt, in fact...I wrote about this before the May 6 Primaries...

http://infogiant.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/hillarys-last-minute-pander-will-end-the-race-on-may-6/

http://infogiant.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/the-race-is-over/

[Genisa]

I gotta give you credit, you are definitely on point.

[Charmed]

You hit the nail on the head each time.....