Clinton Hits Obama For Opposing Gas Tax Holiday

Hillary Clinton Monday criticized Barack Obama for opposing the concept of suspending the gasoline tax during the peak summer driving months, a plan both she and Republican John McCain have endorsed.

The idea to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day was first proposed by McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, as a way to ease the economic burden for consumers during the summer.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[dankav]

Hillary's (and McCain's) gas tax holiday will not lower the price of gas!
Basic economics: Reducing the price of gas by 18 cents a gallon will increase demand. Because only demand has increased, but not supply, the price of gas will go up again promptly. This time, the increase will go into the pockets of the oil companies, while the U.S. gets shorted the 18 cents it used to collect for infrastructure expenses.
The only real ways to lower the cost of driving are: increase supply (won't happen), drive a car that gets better mileage (would work), convince OPEC to sell us their oil for less (gotta be kidding), drive less or slower or in carpools (could help), impose price controls (anyone who promises that is lying).
Hillary has promised everything except that she'll come to your house and do your dishes and laundry for you.
Let me say one thing about Hillary's long litany of promises: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Can someone tell us the truth?! Barack, perhaps?

[FlowerGirl]

What a wonderful media we have!
Or perhaps I should have said, what a wonderful miracle working media somedbody has!

[FlowerGirl]

Nonsense!
Goebbels would have been proud if he could ever have had a media as vile as ours. It spins everything for the Neocon of choice.
Ask all your friends if they can imagine what would have happened to Barack Obama if he were ever caught in such a silly lie as her repeated tale of Bosnia sniperfire.
Ask anyone who is interested in politics what she did to get Murdoch and Scaife in bed with her.
Ask anyone what it means for one to be such an unrepentant liar as Hillary Clinton.
Ask yourself why war is not an issue, why the economy is a minor issue, why truthfulness doesn't matter.
The only issue is now who can win! And we're told that in spite of all the evidence, he can't and she can. (Because she is a tough fighter, will get dirty when she has to.) So, we are told, we must support her.
And ask yourself if such a destructive slime slinger should be rewarded.
If she wins ther nomination, the Neocons will have at least four more years.

When the Bosnia story broke, a close friend of mine, a fanatical Clinton supporter, started crying and asked, "How can she be so stupid? She can't win now. Nobody that stupid can be president." But I remembered Bush and had another thought.

Recall her being fired from the Watergate investigation for unethical conduct and lying?
Why did the genius fail the DC bar exam?

[Jimbo62]

The Tax Holiday will do nothing to solve the problem of exploding gas prices. It might slow the rate at which prices go up, but guess what happens after Labor Day, all the sudden you have to get un-used to that 18 cents a gallon break. It's a typical Washington solution, ignore the problem, put a little band-aid on it and hope it goes away. Something drastic has to be done. Like rolling back the subsidies to Oil and Gas companies who made record profits last year. Strengthen the dollar, that is the real reason prices are going up.

[Moxo]

Since have a gas-tax hoilday does nothing to reduceour dependence on islamic Oil, nor will it reduce the profits Big Oil is getting... why not just have the oil companies pick up the tax payments for us?

My local hardware chain has "We pay The Txa" promotions every couple of months - why not Big Oil?

Or does HRC favor corporations over We The People?

[poles]

Hillary should get to the real issues. She in now hitting Obama about about the concept of a gas tax holiday. For this to pass it must go through congress. Do you really think the Congrressmen and Senators would reallly approve of this cut. Get Real. This is all smoke and mirrors to confuse the voters about the real issues.

[Lisette]

Oh great Hillary
lets add more to our already mounting debt
unless you want to pay for it

[atienne]

Unbelievable! McCain comes with this and here comes Hillary like some kind of LAPDOG! What is so, so, sad is that the people they pander to won't probably take the time to realize just what a bad idea this is. They will want a quick fix and won't think about the debt that will cause not to mention the horrible road and highway conditions that they will NO DOUBT be complaining about! They won't save hardly anything and after that little 'fix', gas prices will be higher than ever. Oh please, PLEASE I hope the talking heads at the networks that feed these poor people their information make it CLEAR why Barack is against it! But I HIGHly doubt they will! This is just so lame. He was so right when he said people tend to vote against their own best interests! I just would love to erase Clinton and McCain OUT of this election so they stop trying to trick people! I'm making it my DUTY to not just campaign for Barack but to help get people INFORMED! I do that when making calls and going to door to door and writing letters to the editor of my local newspaper. I urge you all to do the same. We can't reach everyone but we can try!

Obama for President!!

[ZsaZsa]

The Republican solution to everything: tax cuts

Why is Sen. Clinton adopting the Republican position again? She knows better.

An 18 cent per gallon tax holiday. I'm wetting my pants with joy. Never mind that prices in my hometown have gone up by about that much in the last two weeks.

A short-term solution to a long-term problem. She knows better.

[pbfishtaco]

I think we all know why she's doing this: It's spelled I-n-d-i-a-n-a and it's open primary. Land of Dan Quayle and the Mannings, it's an appeal to the crowd that is fuzzy on the idea of deficit spending; i.e. Republicans, or recent ex-Republicans.

Just curious of the crossover vote in the Indiana Primary.

What is all this posturing by Hillary going to do for the DLC wing of the party after the election? This is not the direction I think most democrats want to go. I think they know it, and are trying to fend of a more progressive direction within the party leadership.

[RThM]

I want to spend less on gas as much as anybody... But knocking a few cents off with a tax "holiday" is like buying votes with bread and the circus.

And in the end the prices will continue to go up. And they won't stop going up because it takes more of our sinking dollars to buy it and the Chinese who have too many of our dollars because of trade imbalances are now also competing for the oil supply to fuel their factories and drive around their spiffy new cars and can throw more of our sinking dollars at the oil producers than we can.

Knocking Obama for not supporting a gas tax holiday says strongly that Clinton is not concerned about the country and will say and do ANYTHING to get into power. This is the sort of economic drivel and political pandering that could only be cooked up in a Washington led by Bushes. But then, Clinton and her ilk followed him into Iraq....

We need a change!

[missjabez]

She hits Obama for everything;what else is new? He's her favorite punching bag. Here's tomorrow's headline:" Clinton Hits Obama For Getting Up This Morning".

[Stillhere29]

How is this pandering from Clinton and McCain going to help any of us in the long run?

[olderdem]

If you suspend the gas tax, it will increase demand, and usage, which will keep the price of oil and gasoline higher than it would otherwise be -- sending that "tax break" to oil companies and nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela. The result could very likely be no price break at all for consumers, only a transfer of more wealth from the U.S. to the oil nations.

Unfortunately the "detailed" Hillary doesn't bother mentioning this when she panders to those that don't understand basic economics. In McCains case, he likely just doesn't understand. Fortunately Obama does understand.

Too bad the idiots in MSM media don't bother explaining. Much easier to talk about Rev. Wright.

[OrionGal]

Less Federal Tax for Federal roads & highways also means Less Workers repairing those roads & highways.

So actually we will have even more people out of work during the summer months?

[ibsteve2u]

On the other hand, letting the highway infrastructure go to hell 'cuz maintenance can't be done without the funds from gas taxes would open the door to more "If we privatize the highways by selling them or leasing them, the maintenance will improve because 'business is more efficient than government'."....

lolllll..some folks interested in that. Wonder how many of 'em are big Hillary and McCain contributors?

[EngineerBill]

Okay everybody her's the 'rithmatic. Let's say you buy 15 gallons of gas every week for 12 weeks. If gas is 4 bucks a gallon you spent 720 bucks. Now assuming the gas station owner is so altruistic and good he passes along the entire gas tax savings to you (stop laughing and let me finish). The 18.4 cent discount will net you 33.12. That's 2.76 a week. Don't go spend it all at once.

[VisiteDeVoltaire]

Smoke and mirrors or sleight of hand, you choose the best analogy for the pre-election "gas tax holiday".

The problem is not the gas tax. The problem is the oil and gas prices bear no resemblance to the supply and demand theory of economics. The oil companies are taking the country to the cleaners and no politician is motivated to attempt to correct this injustice.

Cutting taxes only causes further deterioration of our infrastructure. When are people going to wake up to the fact that these taxes have designated purposes which will not be fulfilled without them? If I wanted to drive through pot holes in the highways, I'd move to California, home to Prop 13 and similar tax cutting initiatives.

[OrionGal]

Actually, Obama did state this very same thing this past week (that he wants to investigate the oil companies, rather than cutting the Federal tax).

[Smunker]

OK, help me with the logic on this one. One of the main drivers of the oil price is that refinement capacity is unable to keep up with demand. Summer demand is the highest of the year. So, by introducing this tax cut, you provide an incentive to increase demand. So the oil producers, um, will put the prices up, won't they?

[RThM]

It's the New Math. Both Clinton and McCain learned it from Bush.

[Wheatstraw]

YATZEE!!!!

[Wheatstraw]

Maybe McClinton have both failed Macro and Micro economics....Even Sevie Wonder can see this plan does not make sense.

[OrionGal]

****but Stevie has glasses, that's not fair*************


whining, being sarcastic, it's for a laugh...........

[KISSman]

How can someone be for balancing a budget and fiscal responsibility and want to remove the gas tax? That is expected income for the government and all the sudden, for the sake of making voters happy, it's a temporary 'fix' that isn't as fix at all.

So, our government is supposed to due without $10 billion so that we can pay 18-cents less than what we should be paying a gallon during a three-month stretch???

It's up to Americans to decide whether they can afford that family vacation this year in a time where the economy and gas prices are not working in our favor. They don't need the government to make it easier for them to make unnecessary joy rides.

What is happening now with gas prices is something we just need to face. A plan like this only suspends reality and will only put us deeper in debt in the long-run.

It's a HORRIBLE idea.

[OrionGal]

I think we all agree that we're not gonna fall for "Temporary Fixes" anymore.

A temporary anything isn't going to help for a long term solution.

Alternative forms of oil.
Demanding Higher gas mileage on new autos.
Finding ways to fill an oil tank with some other fuel.
Replace / revamp diesel engines to take vegetable oil.
Using other means of transporation.

[eustaciavye]

Yet another numbskull McClinton plan. I was thinking, worst case scenario I move to Canada, but then Daily Kos burst that bubble....

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/The_Untold_Story_of_How_Canada_Sabotaged_Barack_Obama

[kamldp]

Every day I wonder at the gall of Sen. Clinton and fervently hope the voting public sees her for what she so obviously is - a politician who will say or do anything - this stuff is not going to help anyone but Hillary Clinton get elected and then she will move on to her next project - messing up the country like she did with her campaign. I'm hoping she takes a vacation very soon.

[eustaciavye]

As I read yet another ridiculous plan from team Clinton/McCain and pondered moving to Canada, this Daily Kos piece changed my mind. Canada is out!

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/The_Untold_Story_of_How_Canada_Sabotaged_Barack_Obama

[Zogtastic]

ONWARD TO SWEDEN!

[Biracial1]

Copied from daily kos.... OK Krugman, what are you going to say about your girl Hillary?

Funds received from gas tax receipts are earmarked specifically for bridge and highway construction, and mass transit programs. Suspending the gas tax for the summer would mean the loss of approximately $7.1 billion in Federal Highway Funds, and an additional $1.8 billion in mass transit funds, an amount that would almost entirely offset Clinton's proposed $10 billion increase in infrastructure reinvestments. The construction industry (admittedly, a self-interested party) also estimates that it could lead to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. And I shouldn't need to remind you that there are few better ways to stimulate an economy on the brink of recession than large public works programs.

But few analysts have argued more persuasively against the idea of a gas tax moratorium than Paul Krugman. This issue is right in Krugman's wheelhouse: it's bad economics, bad policy, and bad politics

[ObamaSuperDelegate]

I don't care about this either, what I do care about is the overall cost of gas. It's costing more and more to fill up now. We will never see that .99 a gallon again, not ever, because if gas does go down to about 2.00 per gallon, we'll think we're getting a deal. HIllary needs to stop pandering for votes. "Shame on you Hillary Clinton, Shame on you."

[kanobi11]

Ok.... sound like another poor judgement from HRC and JM.

Technically, w/ this break, I might be spending just around $15 to $20 a month on gas. Which means for the three months, this will come down to $60 spend on gas and then I am back to the high gas prices again. Umm... $60 is not enough to keep me and the family going for another week. So I think this break is dumb one.

Obama is again showing good judgement when he said he "...doesn't support the "gas tax holiday" and has said the average motorist would not benefit significantly from such a suspension, which some estimates said the federal government would lose about $10 billion in revenue."

This is not a point HRC should be ranting about...It shows clearly her lack of good judgment in tackling the issues...