Do any Clinton supporters approve of this gas tax holiday?

[Cant trust em]

Now that Clinton has championed it, do any of her supporters on here think this is a good idea?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. "Well at least she wants to do SOMETHING!"

That's the closest thing to an answer I've seen from them.

[Tempest]

33. Even if it's the wrong thing to do?

I'd prefer nothing than something that will not make a damned bit of difference at the pump and would throw a lot of Americans out of work.

[BOSSHOG]

2. I am not a Clinton supporter

(I will wholeheartedly support the nominee of MY party.) The gas tax vacation is a wrong move. We should not be encouraging people to drive this summer. Vacation at home. Reduce dependency. If every driver reduced consumption by one gallon a week????

[superkia]

15. If we drove less, they would just give another reason for raising...

the price. Most likely, they will run it up to around $4.05 in the summer and then relieve us by dropping it to around $3.92 until next year when they skyrocket the price again and do the same thing all over again. I thought that I had read somewhere that our consumption was actually down from this time last year and yet the price continues to soar.

I saw a program the other day talking about synthetic oil and when I did a search about it I found someone else's post from a different forum and decided I would borrow their post. They were talking about what I was going to bring up, instead here is their post word for word. It just points out that we are being raped for profits and an agenda and they can manipulate the price however they want as long as our government is in bed with them.



In the mid to late 80's there was a push to produce synthetic oil which is produced from coal as to eliminate our need for foreign oil. When OPEC and the traders on Wall Street saw what was coming on the horizon, oil dropped from $35 a barrel to $8 a barrel.

With clean coal technology, (the ability to trap co2 gas and bury it) why not expand into synthetic oil which can be produced today for $55 a barrel. And this can be done all on U.S. soil. Montana's governor is pushing hard for this due to the fact they are sitting on a mountain of coal.

And the best part is that we have the technology right now to do this because we do it now, but just not in great enough quantity.

[Saturday]

3. It's better than no idea. nt

[Pirate Smile]

4. No, it is really not.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. It creates more problems than it solves.

And it doesn't solve any problems. :shrug:

[Tempest]

34. Wrong

Her idea would put Americans out of work.

How is that better than no idea?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Bad Idea But If I Had To Vote For A Candidate Who I Agree With On Everything I Would Vote For Myself

~

[jillan]

6. What Hillary has said is that we need both a temporary and a permanent solution.

She knows this is just temporary, but she wants to give people a little breather in the meantime.

So what if it only amounts to $30 per person/avg? $30 can fill up my tank.
That's 1 fill-up that I don't have to pay for.

[Cant trust em]

9. $30 average over what amount of time.

Isn't the tax something like 18 cents? In a 15 gallon tank that comes out to a $2.70 savings per fill up.

[jillan]

14. Over 3 months?

Not completely sure.

Like I said, it's not much, but it would fill up my gas tank 3 times.

[BeyondGeography]

23. Do you drive a mo-ped?

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. It's not a solution.

And if you can fill your tank with $10, you must be driving a lawn tractor to work. (George Jones, is that you?)

[jillan]

20. It's a temporary solution. It gives people a little break, that's all it is, and that's all she

claims that it is.



(oops - $30 would fill up my tank 1x. I was thinking of gallons. Yeah - I'm feeling a little embarassed right now)

[Spider Jerusalem]

31. It's not even a temporary solution.

It won't give people a break. Demand is currently inelastic, and the price will continue to rise. And our highway infrastructure will suffer for it (that money is used to finance repairs to freeways, bridges, etc). It is a bad and tremendously stupid idea.

[Cant trust em]

30. Let's hope that pirhana isn't as much of a drunk as Mr. Jones. NT

[spanone]

7. it's stupid, the oil companies still reap record profits while roads suffer....record profits=wrong

[Enrique]

8. I think it's a joke

[mikelewis]

10. When gas hit's $5 a gallon... that 18 cents will really come in handy...

And I'm sure the oil companies won't increase the costs of fuel to offset the special windfall profits tax she wants to impose on them; making the negation of a the fuel tax a zero sum proposition... Maybe she and McCain should rethink their talking points so the message on how this is going to help us is a bit clearer.

[Cant trust em]

12. You're sure they WON"T increase the costs of fuel?

Sorry, but I don't believe that these oil companies are going to pass up that opportunity.

or maybe it was a typo.

[mikelewis]

36. I was being facetious... Of course they will... The U.S. is a crack bitch on gas and they know...

they can do anything they want whenever they want without ever having to worry about their politicians jumping ship... Hilary included.

[Andy823]

11. When does she plan

On enacting this plan? She is not the president right now so how can she get this done right now? Congress always talks about taxing big oil, but the never do. To much oil money in their pockets. Even if she could get congress around to passing it right away so it would help us this year, does anyone thing Bush will not veto any bill that taxes big oil companies?

It's all talk, plain and simple.

[maddiejoan]

13. Good idea

as long as it's not the only idea.

I don't see the big fuss --and the extra 30 bucks in someone's pocket would likely go to "entertainment" expenses such as a movie, or a dinner out, or any number of things that could use summer money and would lose it if people just stayed home. I don't know about any of you --but an extra $30 in MY pocket one week would be a relief from the spartan budget I've been on for the last 2 years.

In any event --it is certainly better than doing nothing.

[grantcart]

16. prices are determined by supply and demand not cost

take away the cost of the tax and the gas will still be priced the same but the 18 cents will go to the oil companies.

Even her own economist agree with this.

She wants to add an additional tax on the oil companies to pay for it but a) its not in place yet and b) what is the point its just moving money around without a benefit.

[Cant trust em]

26. Monsieur Krugman also disagrees

"Anyway, John McCain has a really bad idea on gasoline, Hillary Clinton is emulating him (but with a twist that makes her plan pointless rather than evil), and Barack Obama, to his credit, says no."

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/gas-tax-follies/

[Cant trust em]

19. Where does the $30 number come from?

The gas tax is 18.4 cents. A tank is probably, what, 15 gallons? By my quick math that means savings of $2.76 per tank.

[BeyondGeography]

24. It's $30 over the three months of summer

It works out to 10 bucks a month for more pollution and higher profits for oil companies.

[Tempest]

35. Some economists are saying only $18 over the summer

Based upon mileage by average drivers.

[bluestateguy]

21. I'm for price controls

Because there is no promise that phasing out the gas tax will ACTUALLY lower gas prices. What is to stop the oil companies and service stations from just raising the price by 18 cents?

[Abacus]

22. Not a Clinton supporter, but

I think it's lame.

1. The holiday would be substantially destructive without the windfall profits tax.

2. Trying to get the windfall tax passed will consume too much time and too many resources.

3. Even if it does pass, it will be useless -- oil companies will raise their prices to compensate and when the holiday is over, they will maintain those margins AND we will have the tax back anyway.


I doubt this will be a popular opinion, but I honestly think we'd be better off raising the tax.

[Cant trust em]

32. Raising taxes?

Why don't you move back to France, you latte-sipping, sushi eating Marxist!

:sarcasm:

[Captain Hilts]

25. For a brief period I could be talked into it. While it is a user tax, it is also really regressive

[Catchawave]

27. Since the stimulus checks are going to pay for gas anyhow....

Sure, why not :shrug:

I'm a business news junkie and there's much to be said about what businesses get stimulated, the oil companies and China (hello Walmart!) are going to reap the biggest profits.

Windfall profits should be taxed, so the states can still maintain their roads.

I think that was her plan too. She really is thinking of the working class.

[BigDDem]

28. 100% Clinton supporter

It's a silly idea.

[Vinca]

29. One reason Hillary's plan makes no sense is her windfall tax

to pay for it. ExxonMobil would be upping their prices as fast as they could to make consumers pay their windfall tax. We'd probably end up with $6 a gallon.