Reply #166: Fair enough, though I disagree...

[The Doctor.]

Unfortunately the gas tax break is still borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. The revenue will be lost from projects that create jobs, meanwhile, how much gas does someone have to purchase in that three months to 'feel it'?

Let's do a little math;

In order to make that 18¢ useful to Americans, let's say someone buys 1,000 gallons of gas in that three month period. I know you can do the math, but we'll walk through it together;

First, we'll assume that the vehicle in question gets a nice healthy 21 mpg. That means we've travelled 21,000 miles in three months, that's 7,000 miles per month, which translates to @ 233 miles per day. That's one heck of a commute.

And what did we save?

$180.00 That's it... $60.00 per month.

So, each month we could now afford to buy; One extra pair of shoes for one person, or, half an average phone bill, or, one dental cleaing at an economy dentist, or, dinner for two at an inexpensive restaurant.
For the whole three month period; One trip to the grocery store for two weeks worth of groceries for a family of four. If you're good with coupons, you could may stretch that three months of savings into one month of groceries. One could use that three months of savings to pay for two months of basic cable service. That three months of savings could go toward a fraction of any one utility bill for one month.

Or... that three months of savings could go towards less than one week's worth of gas after the tax comes back.


That doesn't seem like a gimmick to you?


Well, for 95% of Americans who don't commute 500 miles per day or more (Then they save around $140/month), that's a pittance compared to the huge bills and debt load that they carry now.

OTOH - With a windfall profits tax, we can look at changing the economic foundation upon which Americans depend. Targetting incentives to open up refining can save far more than 18¢ per gallon over the long run, which is far more beneficial to industry and Americans at large. When the overall cost of energy comes down, everything comes down.

Turn some of that revenue back into alternative energy sources, and we're looking at getting off foreign oil.


It's simple facts and simple math; a 'Gas Tax Holiday', although it sounds nice, cannot accomplish all of that.


What do you have to say?