Blumenauer: Gas tax holiday ain't happening
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., are both flogging the idea on the campaign trail, saying they want to provide some relief to hard-press consumers by removing the 18.4-cent federal gas tax over the summer driving season.
"The good news is it won't happen," [Earl Blumenauer] told me over the phone today. "I think it's a non-starter in terms of it being enacted."
The big hangup in Congress is that no one wants to give up the $3 billion a month the gas tax brings into the highway trust fund, he said. The fund is already going into the red, he said, and members are besieged with demands for more projects than they can approve already.
So it's a situation of "we'd like to lower taxes but we don't want to give up the money..." Lowering taxes is the one way that I actually would like to see government get involved with the price of gas. Alas, we will keep paying that extra 18 cents a gallon because somewhere there is a bike path or trolley that needs to be built.
6 comments:
DOPEY DAN DO YOU HAVE AN ANSWER ON HOW MAINTAIN THE ROADS??
I guess Daniel's post shows why politicians pander: because it works. The first issue is that there is this thing called "supply and demand." McCain's idea would be to pay for those missed tax revenues by borrowing from the general fund - this would increase our already ballooned deficit. Clinton's idea is to "pass a windfall profits tax" on the oil companies - never going to happen without 60+ votes in the Senate.
Daniel, is it really worth it to you to save $50 bucks over the summer to lose at least 100,000 construction jobs over the summer that will pump money into the economy? Is it really worth it to you to save $50 bucks over the summer only so that you can drive over potholes continually so that you have to spend more than $50 bucks on car repairs? Is it really worth it to you to save $50 bucks over the summer only so that the oil companies will just raise the price of gas, in effect nullifying any savings?
I know it is asking a ton, but don't just jump into "taxes bad" chest-beating if you have no clue regarding reality.
Daniel et al. nativists:
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
hey ICE 503 3267475
Go to the Beaverton Goodwill and round up about 20 illegals- that's every hour on the hour.
Glad to know Tasha's surveilling the Goodwills so we don't have to!
Are they buying up all the books to sell on ebay before you can Tasha?
Daniel: Are you PROFITING from all the spanish language banner ads on your blog? Can you say hypocrite?
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