McCain Defends Gas Tax Holiday With More Hackery
| Fri May. 2, 2008 12:40 PM PDT
John McCain is apparently getting frustrated trying to defend the base political pander he calls the gas tax holiday. (Typical appraisal from those in the know: "It's about the dumbest thing I've heard in an awful long time from an economic point of view." — Michael Bloomberg) Here's McCain responding to a voter's question:
"You'd think that I was attacking Western civilization as we know it. The special interests [say], 'Oh, my God. This will destroy our transportation system in America. This will have disastrous consequences.' Look, all I think is we ought to give low-income Americans, in particular, a little relief."
Okay, first of all, to suggest that opponents of the gas tax holiday are "special interests" is preposterous. Experts and economists of all ideological types have criticized the gas tax holiday as braindead. Second, the special interests, specifically the oil companies, are cheering the idea. If you take an 18-cent tax off the price of a gallon of gas, you allow the oil companies to add 18 cents per gallon in additional profits. That's why the original criticisms of the McCain version of the gas tax called it a giveaway to the oil companies!
And one other note. John McCain seems to think that the gas tax holiday helps low-income Americans the most because they drive the farthest. In fact, the opposite is true.
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Comments
the "gas tax holiday" is absolutely ridiculous. Hillary was quoted as saying that it would only save around $70 for the average american. That doesn't do a thing to address the much larger issue at hand. Stop giving tax breaks to big oil companes, stop trying pass bills for $70 billion extra to support the war and instead focus on the American economy and renewable energy.
Pres Bush needs to be seriously tortured for all the problems he has helped to create.
It is very likely that the consumers won't see any difference in the price of oil at the pump. The current price of oil doesn't reflect the difficulty of producing oil, but the fact that supply is currently lower than demand. The 18 cents a gallon tax helps lower demand a little bit, but if you took it away, the increased demand would mean that oil companies would be able to raise prices by about 18 cents to once again balance demand with supply.
It is like scalping tickets. If a scalper can get $200 for a ticket, it doesn't matter how much the scalper paid for the ticket, he is going to sell it for $200. Lowering taxes on the ticket is going to lower the price of the ticket if the scalper can find a buyer willing to pay $200 for the ticket.
I'm not a fan of McCain or Hillary Clinton, but since this idea has been announced, literally every expert has said that this is a BAD idea.
And I am not trying to make light of the situation of low income Americans, but if in the short run they save $30-$70 this summer, but afterward the price jumps back up again, or possibly go even higher, how has that helped their situation in the short run.
This whole situation makes me uneasy. This and the "economic stimulus" are bad ideas that might end us costing us more in the long run.
"... inventories of petroleum products and crude oil in the United States indicate a general decline over the past twenty years. Lower operating costs associated with lower inventories may have translated into lower consumer prices during normal periods. However, lower than normal inventories can lead to higher or more volatile prices in the event of supply disruptions or surges in demand."
"The nation's petroleum product supply infrastructure is constrained in key areas and is likely to become increasingly constrained unless timely investments are made," Energy Markets, Increasing Globalization of Petroleum Products Markets, Tightening Refining Demand and Supply Balance, and Other Trends Have Implications for U.S. Energy Supply, Prices, and Price Volatility, GAO (Govt. Accounting Office), Dec. 2007.
Read: The Oil Companies want the Refinary Permitting Process gutted...
You Tell Me:
Is that like how, "Public program obligations, already burdensome, will be unsustainable for future generations of Americans. By 2013, Medicare expenditures alone are projected to grow by about 999 percent in real dollars. During a 3-year period, Medicare beneficiaries received certain recommended services less than two-thirds of the time," Health Care System Crisis: Growing Challenges Point to Need for Fundamental Reform, GAO, April 2004.
One would assume here that the politicians are making a supreme effort to distract us from reality, this in order to write their own ticket...
Here someone needs to illustrate how the $7 billion in US ethanol subsidies could buy a lot of electric cars (they were too expensive--no one was interested--so the automakers killed them...)...
...Because everyone's wondering when Congress is going to axe the mandated five fold increase in ethanol production (not to mention belatedly "re-fund" the solar power initiatives that run out in Aug.)
...Now that the UN has called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production (re: the cost of corn for food...)
...And that "atmospheric scientists at Stanford University found that E85 fuel would increase the risk of AIR POLLUTION DEATHS relitive to gasoline. Ozone levels are significantly increased, thereby increasing photochemical smog and aggravating medical problems such as asthma," Wikipedia--Ethanol fuel.
It's like smoking pot but you get lousy mileage instead of losing your keys...
Hey--the craziness is contagious...!!!!!!!!!
Seems to me that lower income Americans are more likely to use public transport than to drive their own cars. So a gas tax "holiday" would have little or no effect for them.
There are many ways to provide relief for lower income Americans; most would likely provide more relief. How about more job training so that they could get better paying jobs? How about a livable wage; where does McCain stand on the minimum wage?
Claiming that this tax holiday proposal is for the good of low income Americans is bogus and hypocritical.
You don't think that they have, Sidney? How about the price of gas going up the same day that a barrel of crude does. I guess that they are practicing a up-dated version of "On Time" delivery. It certainly couldn't be that they are able to refine the crude and get it out to the service stations the same day using their out dated and inadequate refining resourses. Who are you "shilling for."
Submitted by 中古ビデオ (not verified) on Thu Oct. 23, 2008 9:52 PM PDT.
good job. thanks for all
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