Does Hillary REALLY want a "gas tax holiday"?

[thesquanderer]

Clinton and Obama are at odds over whether the repeal of federal gas tax for the summer is a good idea, as a mechanism to help address the current jump in gas prices. As far as I've seen, a couple of key things have been missing in this discussion:

1. Neither of them can be President until Jan 2009, at which point the issue of how to address the problem of high Summer 2008 gas prices will be moot, which would seem to make it an odd campaign issue.

There is, I suppose, some value in getting an idea about how they would address this kind of issue if they were President, but it's not as if whether or not the "gas tax holiday" will happen is going to be affected by who wins the nomination.

Which brings me to the other point...

2. Hillary is already a Senator and actually has the power to try to make this happen now. She doesn't have to wait until she's President. If Hillary really thinks this is such a great idea, why isn't she working on getting this through Congress today? the idea even has bipartisan report. It could be introduced as the McCain-Clinton 2008 Gas Tax Holiday Bill as the two of them have been so vocal about promoting the idea.

Talking about it is useless, If these candidates actually believe this is a good idea, they should be working on making it happen. After all, unlike many of the other presidential candidates who are no longer in the race, Clinton and McCain are currently serving in the Senate and actually have the power today to try to make this happen by introducing legislation and using their leadership skills to try to get it passed.

If, that is, they genuinely believe it's a good idea.

[nichomachus]

1. Who knows what she wants? What day is it?

[cmarie]

6. Indiana/North Carolina

Well, I think Hillary is hoping today is the day she sweeps Indiana AND North Carolina (thanks to her recent stand and appearance on O'Reilly of course)...

[cmarie]

2. Nine Dollars!

Ok, what gets me is that this "Gas Tax Holiday" will save each person an average of nine dollars for the ENTIRE summer. I'd much rather forget the whole thing and have my nine dollars go towards education, health care, better roads, or whatever... this seems like a lot of hooplah for nothing.

[City Lights]

3. Welcome to DU, cmarie!

:hi:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. It will actually cost people.

The gas tax goes directly into road work. Preventative maintenance.

The repairs for the damages caused by such nonsense would cost more than the "holiday."

[anigbrowl]

4. Well, her campaign is broke...with all that travel, she'd save some $$$

Remember, this is the campaign that started out with one plane for her and another for the press corps...

[book_worm]

7. I've been asking that question for days in these threads

Has she drafted a bill?
Has she gotten co-sponsors?
Has she lobbied her fellow Senators?
Has she tried to schedule time with Pelosi and Reid about introducing the bill?

[thesquanderer]

8. Great questions, book_work

I tried googling for this kind of thing and couldn't come up with anything.

[cmarie]

10. Me too

I just did a search as well... nothing.

[bunnies]

9. Shes busy campaigning.

You dont expect her to actually *work* to pass her lame-assed sure-to-fail bill... do you?