Letters to the Editor
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Look at the tax mechanism
I agree that a state sales tax moratorium could have some salubrious effects for the customers, as noted. The federal taxes, however, are a producer tax, collected from the companies that process the road fuel, not from the gas stations that sell it.
Bear in mind that these producers are publicly traded companies, so removing one federal tax on them only to replace it with another (windfall profits) will have zero effect on prices at the pump. These companies have to maintain their operating margins or they will be severely punished by their shareholders.
Smoke and mirrors.
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Not a solution
Some are having to choose between gasoline and food. A savings of $30 or $50 is a significant amount of cash for at least some Americans.
And that is why this plan IS a sham. A one time savings of $30-50 does nothing to tackle the very real problem of long-term out-of-control gas prices. A one time savings of less than $60 is not a solution, it is a gimmick, plain and simple. This plan is not a solution, it is political pandering and HRC is rightly slammed for it. Once the summer is over, those very same families you mentioned will go right back to choosing food or gas. Your logic is terrible, and I cannot believe Salon even published this worthless article.
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Oblamatrons run a risk
Of being smeared with the label of people who utterly refuse to ever lower taxes on anyone anywhere at anytime. That is not politically wise.
We can all understand the populist ire at tax cuts for the wealthy but this token effort aimed at the middle class, is just that. Once Oblamatrons dig their heels and decide this small tax cut is also ideologically evil, well, you can see where this leads. You wind up as a caricature of the tax and spend liberal the right always smears you with.
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proper credit
even if the gas tax suspension was a good idea (and I don't think it is) shouldn't you be giving Sen. McCain credit? didn't he come out in favor of it long before Sen. Clinton?
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It's all about the page hits:
(1) have hack writer write trolling, pandering article...
(2) draw increased web traffic from angry liberals who post comments...
(3) PROFIT!
Believing that the left is immune from manipulation for profit is like believing that the Christians are stealing your money at the collection plate, but new age gurus have your best interests at heart...
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George Frost is Wrong
Barack went into a long explanation on Meet The Press about how the state of Illinois tried this gas tax lifting and it only resulted in the oil companies raising their price to make up for the tax decrease. GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT !!!!!
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The straight dope
Arguing for the gas tax holiday is like arguing to support George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest. In both cases it is true that the tax cut benefits consumers on the lower end of the economic food chain but it is also true that the greatest benefits are reaped by the wealthiest, in this case the oil companies themselves. There is no system in place for the US government to control how the oil companies respond to the tax cut. They could, as they often do, fill at least some of the cut with price increases.
Wouldn't it just be simpler to target this financial aid in the form of income tax cuts to people making less than say $75,000 a year? Let's say a gas tax credit of $1000, a whopping $972 more than they would save under Clinton's plan.
This issue is pandering on a whole other scale of being a moot point. The US Congress has already indicated that there is not enough support on this issue to propose such a bill. Thus, no such bill will be considered. The argument Clinton is making is purely academic. She can do nothing to save driver's money this summer! And most economists are thankful for that.
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red_gti2000
It is much more convenient to whine about "Elites" than it is to actually think about the inconvenient truths they are telling you.
The Bush administration relied on that with Global Warming, the Iraq War, and their tax cuts. They relied on you being too stupid to wonder why the experts were saying what they were saying - they relied on you being such a frigging dumbass that you would simply write these experts off as being "Elitists."
And that reliance proved to be dramatically and ultimately, well founded. Bush won twice on pretty much the same arguements that are proving to be effective for Hillary's campaign.
The economists don't like this tax vacation because it does nothing about supply and demand, it doesn't up supply, it doesn't drop demand all it does is make it cheaper to buy gas. All it does is take a huge amount of money out of the hands of the guys maintaining your roads, and gives you the price of a bag of crisps in return.
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lets try this again
Here's the deal.....Hillary proposes a temporary break on the gas tax. The Democrats draft the bill and have enough votes to send it to Bush (if the democrats will support it). Either Bush will veto it or sign it.
If he vetos it then it's the perfect issue to use against the Republicans in November who sustain Bush's veto.
If he signs it we all get a little break on gas prices.
Either way it helps the Democrats get elected and then they can actually draft more substantial legislation to address the energy problem.
It's how politics works, like it or not.
But it only works if the Democrats stick together. We already know Obama is not a team player, hopefully the rest of the Democrats are.
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Nixon revived
Obviously, if you have more money seeking the same amount of goods, the price of the goods will rise. Who will get the money? Obviously, the people who are holding and selling the goods.
Even the average six-year-old can probably understand this. Clinton (copying McCain) seems to be seeking the five-year-old vote -- people who are too dumb to follow the simplest economic logic.
It's a move like attempting to racialize the primaries. I'm beginning to think Nixon has come back from the dead.