As Clinton Seeks Gas Tax Break for Summer, Obama Says No

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

As angry truckers encircled the Capitol in a horn-blaring caravan and consumers across the country agonized over $60 fill-ups, the issue of high fuel prices flared on the campaign trail on Monday, sharply dividing the two Democratic candidates.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton lined up with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, in endorsing a plan to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for the summer travel season. But Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic rival, spoke out firmly against the proposal, saying it would save consumers little and do nothing to curtail oil consumption and imports.

While Mr. Obama’s view is shared by environmentalists and many independent energy analysts, his position allowed Mrs. Clinton to draw a contrast with her opponent in appealing to the hard-hit middle-class families and older Americans who have proven to be the bedrock of her support. She has accused Mr. Obama of being out of touch with ordinary Americans who are struggling to meet their mortgages and gas up their cars and trucks.

Mrs. Clinton said at a rally on Monday morning in Graham, N.C., that she would introduce legislation to impose a windfall-profits tax on oil companies and use the revenue to suspend the gasoline tax temporarily.

“At the heart of my approach is a simple belief,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Middle-class families are paying too much and oil companies aren’t paying their fair share to help us solve the problems at the pump.”



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/us/politics/29campaign.html?hp

[Skittles]

1. this is as cheap and nonsensical a stunt as the "stimulus checks"

can our candidates work on some REAL solutions???

[OhioChick]

29. You're right.

What are we to do once Summer ends? How about some long-term solutions?

[Mojambo]

2. Clinton and McCain lining up together. Again. n/t

[ShockediSay]

37. Best would be to take away the big tax breaks for oilCos &

use them to reduce pump prices.

[madmom]

3. Wind fall profits tax cheap and nonsensical? Not to long ago that's what dems were calling for.

[lakeguy]

26. the tax holiday is nonsensical and cheap...

not the idea of a corporation making obscene profits. take your blinders off!

[madmom]

32. My blinders are not on, I was simply repeating the above post, maybe someone needs to

make themselves a little more clear.

[Kittycat]

4. Great. Let's not go after the tax credits the Gas Companies get... Instead...

Let's take the consumption tax off, and let our roads & bridges fall in to further disarray - so we can drive our cars off crumbling bridges to go to Disney. YAY!!!

[indimuse]

21. this is immediate relief...NOT a long-term solution..

and you know it! She is walking the walk!

[cali]

23. no it's not relief. do the math, dear.

this would save the average consumer a whopping $25 bucks or so over 3 months. Who the fuck does that help? No one. It sure the hell doesn't help the guy down the road from me who works at the mill, or the many people I know who have to drive 60 miles a day to work and back. She's right about the windfall profits tax, but she's a cynical pandering pos on the gas tax holiday. And anyone with half a brain knows it.

[hatrack]

31. Hmm . . . let's see . . .

Why is gasoline expensive? Because demand is strong and supply is somewhat constrained.

And if you cut the price of something for which strong demand exists, will people buy more or less of it? My guess is that they'll tend to buy more.

And if they buy more - that is, if they increase demand - what happens to the price? Oh, yeah, that's right - the prices goes up.

The entire proposal is pandering bullshit, and I don't care if it's McLame or Hillary pimping it.

[KittyWampus]

5. Wonder if Krugman will call Hillary out for embracing the Republican framing

[Oleladylib]

19. well hell, this time they are right!

[madrchsod]

6. she can not do anything about the federal tax on gasoline

if america wants to save money on gasoline..keep you tires inflated to the proper pressure,clean air filters, and drive slower.

[MattNC]

7. It's pure pandering

at its worst.

[bluestateguy]

8. Hillary is now Mrs. Pander Bear

Just as her husband was called the Pander Bear by Paul Tsongas. Typical behavior of the candidate who represents grabby "groups".

[jakefrep]

34. Exactly!

How do we know that if this happens, Big Oil won't raise gas prices by 18 cents?

BTW, Paul Tsongas was the first person I voted for in a Presidential primary.

[elocs]

9. Clinton lining up with McCain--who would have thunk it? Astounding! n/t

[wisteria]

10. This in a cheap band-aid for a large issue that needs serious discussion.

Senator Obama notes that suspending this tax will hurt us in the long run because this tax money is used to repair roads and bridges and other infrastructures. There isn't enough money now being spent to address the concerns over dilapidated highways and bridges. And, ultimately this so called tax break will have to be made up elsewhere and does not address the real issue of high gas prices alternatives, and incentives for concerning its use.

[skyounkin]

11. ^^^^^^^ That post is spot on.

As for hillary appearing with mccain? WTF???

[ElsewheresDaughter]

12. watch his hands...watch his hands!

[John Q. Citizen]

13. Hillary's war is what drove up the cost of oil. She's in desperation mode.

[murielm99]

15. This is Bush's war.

I don't care which candidate you support, it is Bush's war.

[John Q. Citizen]

16. yep, one guy did it all. Amazing as it sounds. No help from IWR votes or anything.

I think bush wants to obliterate Iran also.

He just hasn't put it in those specific terms yet.

[Eurobabe]

14. So why doesn't Hilly join Johnny on a ticket? n/t

[dhill926]

17. I'm for Obama but....

Hillary framed it better. Say what you will, we're still talking a mass consumption electorate here....

[Oleladylib]

18. Obama, the idealist..is out of touch with reality....

does he even fill his own tank...he just doesn't identify with us...never has and evidently never will.

[cali]

24. oh please. explaing to me how saving $25 bucks over 3 months

helps anyone. I dare you. Just try.

[Jennicut]

33. Actually Hill and McLame are out of touch, we are consuming so much oil we are tantruming

As the amount of oil found peaks, the cost goes up. As demand goes up, the cost goes up. As the amount of unrest spreads in the rest of the world, the price goes up. As the overspeculating goes on in an unregulated stock market, the price goes up. A piddly little gas tax did not make the price goes up, pays for an already CRUMBLING infrastructure in the United States, and won't save consumers much. Try to conserve. Drive less and slower, get smaller vehicles. This will not end. It might get worse. Even if all other factors get better, we find more oil, the middle east gets calmer, the stock market calms down, India and China still still are causing overconsumption. The population of the world is getting bigger every second. This means the cheap energy of the 90's is over. Hill and McCain don't get complexity so...I'm not surprised. Environmentalists know this is true, even oil companies know this is happening. Why all people don't wake up too it is beyond reason.

[gaspee]

20. I like this idea

We're seeing major wealth redistribution from the pockets of all the little guys into the pockets of big oil.

Cutting the gas tax and instituting a windfall tax would go a little ways toward shifting that redistribution.

[skepticscott]

22. Not at all

As Obama correctly points out, the oil companies can simply raise their prices to match the cut in taxes, and no one will know. That part of our gasoline bill will then be going directly into the pockets of the oil companies, instead of into the public coffers, where there was at least a chance for it to do some good. The windfall tax will likely never pass, and even if it does, the oil companies can just raise prices again to cover it. Obama has the right answer to the problem of higher gas prices-use less gas!

[mcollier]

25. This Displays their lack of economic policy understanding...

If I have a 20 gallon tank, saving .18 cents per gallon $2.60 per fillup and I fillup
the tank 2 times a week = $5.20 x 4 weeks = $20.80 savings per month...

Huummmm..... It cost me $20 dollars in gas per day just to drive to work round trip....

Like many of the Nation's policies, Im not so much concerned about the tax; What Im concerned about are the financial economic,
energy, foreign and domestic policies and wastes of our tax dollars that have lead to rediculous inflation, corporate welfare and
misguided governmental focus all costing the American taxpayer significanly.

The value of the dollar is shrinking, the cost of basic living essentials (food, shelter, energy, healthcare and education ) are
going through the damn roof...

And John McCain's and Hillary Clinton's answer is to put us in more debt? Why not repeal the Bush tax cuts to the rich? Why not stop the billions in
federal tax breaks and grants Oil and Gas companies which are making record breaking profits? Why not standup to the corporate
lobbyist and special interest groups and cut their ability to set the agenda... This is how we begin to deal with the problem.

[high density]

27. I agree, cutting this tax is just an endorsement to raise the price another 20 cents or so

A gallon of gas has gone up that much over the last two weeks anyway, so the value of this cut is less and less as the prices continue into the stratosphere.

[reclinerhead]

35. Seconded... or thirded.

While McLame and Clinton blather on about their gas tax plan, the price went up another 5 cents.

Seriously, $4.25 a gallon now on the central coast for premium. I'd like to hear a candidate with some ideas to address this besides the repeal of a 20 cent tax per gallon?

[mbperrin]

28. Well, that puts him in Bush's corner.

President Bush’s spokeswoman essentially sided with Mr. Obama in saying that tax holidays and new levies on oil companies would not address the long-term problems of dependence on foreign oil.

From the article.

So we can be sure the oil companies approve of the helpless notion that we can do nothing.

Actually a nice 70% or higher windfall profits tax would put many billions into the Treasury.

[Vinca]

30. Saving 20 cents a gallon for 3 months is not a solution, it's politicking.

We need long term solutions and we have to start them NOW. If we could put a man on the moon the way we did with the technology available at the time, this should be a no brainer. The only thing to hold us back will be politicians beholden to ExxonMobil.

[skepticscott]

36. What I wish someone would ask McCain is

"Under your plan, will you and the president support an increase of the gas tax back to its original level at the end of the summer?" He'll get hives all over at hearing any question with the words "increase" and "tax" in it, and he'll either stammer helplessly as he struggles for an answer, or he'll have to admit that the whole idea is a scam to put more tax dollars into corporate coffers permanently.

[and-justice-for-all]

38. Barack is right...

and this looks more like a stunt by HRC to me. 18.4 cents tax suspension at these prices is not going to do jack shit.

Natural resources should be Nationalized and not privatized.