Letters to the Editor
-
We don't need no stinkin' roads or bridges
Great idea, John. After all, gas tax comes back to the states to fix roads and bridges. We don't need no stinkin' roads or bridges. Let them all crumble, then we won't be able to drive our cars. That will fix the oil crisis once and for all.
-
How will the revenue be made up?
Remember when the Republicans were running around pushing their "Balanced Budget Ammendement" horsepucky? They all stressed that the nation was like a family, that it had to live within its means? What happened to that rhetoric? And why doesn't anyone ask this deluded old fool how he will make up the lost revenue and run his assinine war if he cuts all these taxes? Shouldn't that be question #1--where's the money gonna come from? It is any time you suggest helping out the sick or the poor.
All those Hilary and Obama partisans who like denouning the other side, take note: this is what we will get if you keep this shit up.
-
Maybe that's the goal
I wonder if McCain realizes that the gas tax is earmarked for the highway trust fund and that the fund is projected to be bankrupt in the next couple of years.
I doubt if McCain sees that as a problem.
Who needs public highways when you can privatize those, too, and have toll roads? Toll roads that are patrolled by taxpayer supported police, kept clear by taxpayer supported work crews, etc.
Come to Southern CA or for that matter Mexico, if you want to see the best routes being available only for a fee, and what traffic is like on the "free" route.
To drive from Nogales, AZ to Puerto Vallarta, MX, a distance of about 1200 miles, I paid about $200 US in tolls.
-
The wrong solution
Current gas taxes take only the slimmest portion of the subsidies we pour into gasoline back. Reducing those taxes only encourages us to hide still more of the true cost of gasoline in our federal budget. If every American saw the $20 a gallon gas really costs when they filled up at the pump, real change would happen, and happen quickly. Oil companies don't want real change, so they donate to the GOP to keep our oil addiction safe, legal, and affordable.
My favorite proposal is to pay for the Iraq war through a "temporary" tax at the pump.
-
have a gander
State taxes on sales, gasoline, cigarettes, beer, wine and spirits.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/245.html
"For the first quarter of 2008, the average state gasoline tax is 28.6 cents per gallon, plus 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 47 cents per gallon. For diesel, the average state tax is 29.2 cents per gallon plus an additional 24.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 53.6 cents per gallon." - source is Wiki
Note also that commercial airlines are exempt from Federal taxes on jetfuel.
-
Ironic geography
It seems appropriate that the Republican National Convention will be in the Twin Cities this year, albeit 10 miles from the famous former bridge.
-
Just a thought
Obviously, McCain's an idiot for making this proposal and trying to guarantee that the US will be in debt until eternity. But it occurs to me that maybe he, along with his right-wing cronies, really DOESN'T CARE. Try this on for size: the Republicans have become the party of the most obnoxious Christian believers, who spend their time screaming about morals and Judgment Day cometh. Has it occurred to anyone else that the reason these Repubs are so indifferent to what we're doing is that they really believe the Apocalypse and that Left Behind junk is going to come before we're called to pay the price?
-
jeez what an idiot
McCain is terrible. He is totally clueless. He knows nothing, he cares about nothing. The price of gas has little to nothing to do with the tax levied on it. Shouldn't he know that lowering prices will just drive up demand, almost certainly returning prices to what they were with the tax? All it does is transfer that money from the federal government (which it uses to build roads) to private gigantic oil companies. Which might be the whole point.
I think most Americans are sick of welfare for rich people. I know I am.
-
Olduvai Theory
We are witnessing the commencement of what Richard C. Duncan calls the "slide", the first segment of the time after reaching the peak of oil extraction as demand continues to climb. Available data seem to indicate that to be that the peak occurred in within the past four years. George W. Bush went begging to Saudi Arabia a few months ago for them to open up their magic oil spigots, but..guess what?...came home empty-handed because the spigots are already wide open!
The whole scenario of what will happen over the coming decades has been widely known in the petroleum industry since M. King Hubbert first announced in 1955 that oil resources were limited and extraction would peak around the millennium. My father, a man who made his career in the oil refining industry, discussed this around the family dinner table in the 1960's. Any politician who has not anticipated the problem of petroleum shortages has been living with blinders on or is being deeply dishonest with his constituents. In either case, we need to find leaders who have grasped the enormity of the problem and will take the necessary emergency action to produce a long term solution of sustainability.
The "slope" of oil production, with its unprecedented economic catastrophe and attendant social chaos is just a few years, not decades away.
Let's stop supporting band-aide solutions to what will amount to economic suicide by starvation. Stop voting for politicians who distract us from serious real problems with the phony "War on Terror".
-
Clown in Chief.
That's McCain's title. Hands down.
-
What's to prevent the gas from going up anyway?
Over at TPMCafe, Jared Bernstein points out that if you cut the gas tax, what's to prevent the oil companies from raising the cost of their product?
I have to agree, the gas companies already see that we can still afford this price, there hasn't been huge reductions in driving (yet), if you reduce the tax, the gas price can go back to where it is now and people will still buy it.
Just like that, your highway $$$ transferred directly to the oil companies... Then when it's time for the tax to resume, their will be a huge outcry.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/15/more_reasons_to_worry_about_mc/