***One Big Reason why we cannot afford to delude ourselves with a Gas Tax Holiday...***

[JackORoses]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nerQhIyOwxM

Don't listen to Hillary.

If the taxes are cut, the roadways will suffer. Period.

Why don't we do a Defense Department cut, Hillary? Talk about your bloated pork-barreled earmarks...

[GetTheRightVote]

1. Economist on Fox News just made that statement, would need to get taxes back

from us another way, could not afford to lose the revenue used for roads.

[Boz]

2. SUPPLY AND DEMAND

It will do much more for the economy than some reverse raffle tax lowering that is going to raise the price of gas in the fall when it normally falls.

This is corporatist carpet bagging at its worst and what makes it so much worse is a Democrat is in on it, because the washington long time club knows, the American people don't get supply and demand.

Put a 3 dollar tax on gas, it will drive use down exponentially and pay for road and infrastructure repair, then lower it back down in the fall and habits will take much longer to return to abusive overuse.

A Tax holiday is going to do just the opposite and drive up profits for the oil companies in the fall, when they typically elasticise until heating oil kicks in and it will take money away from fixing things like bridges that are collapsing and killing people.

No wonder politicians think America is stupid, if they fall for bait and switch BS like this, they deserve it.

[pinkpops]

9. I think u r right RAISE the gas tax. Everyone read the post above

[Boz]

10. My post was a repost .

[Yael]

3. Maybe it is my faulty memory

But didn't a major bridge just COLLAPSE last summer?

What is WRONG with these people?

Talk about pandering to LIV.

[JackORoses]

6. that's what's in my link

It was in Minneapolis on a major Interstate.

[Yael]

11. Thanks. Having major Comcast problems

Must be contract negotiation (aka mine is bigger than yours) time with the cable providers.

I haven't been able to access YouTube or MSBNC.com for over a week.

DU is not a problem -- but many external links just time out, so I haven't been bothering with them.

[FarCenter]

4. A tax reduction would be a windfall for the oil companies

If taxes go down, the price goes down, consumption goes up, prices go back up, and the oil companies pocket added profits.

[parasim]

5. Agreed. Taxes on gas are not that bad. It's the oil companies' profits that are.

Gas taxes are sorely needed in this country for failing roadways. The oil companies with their obscene are what need to be reined in.

[Minimus]

12. Her plan seems to address the oil companies' profit issue and highway maintenance concern

From her website:

Hillary will impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies and use the money to temporarily suspend the 18.4 cent per gallon federal gas tax and the 24.4 cent per gallon diesel tax during the upcoming peak summer driving months. Hillary will ensure that this relief is passed along to consumers by charging the Federal Trade Commission with conducting aggressive oversight. Unlike Senator McCain’s plan, Hillary’s plan will be fully paid for by taking away oil company profits through a windfall profits tax. This will ensure that the Highway Trust Fund is not affected at all by the gas tax suspension, and can continue to support critical repairs and maintenance for our infrastructure and highways. Suspending the gas tax will provide real, immediate assistance to American families and for our economy. Recent testimony before the House of Representatives by the American Trucking Association indicates that even small changes in price can have big impacts. Just a one-penny decrease in the price of diesel annualized over an entire year would save the trucking industry $391 million a year.

[parasim]

14. Uh huh...

-snip-

Obama responded harshly to the idea that suspending the gas tax would help Americans pay their bills:

Now, the two Washington candidates in the race have been attacking me lately because I don't support their idea of a gas tax holiday. This is an idea that, when all is said and done, will save you - at most - half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer. That's about $28. It's an idea that some economists think might actually raise gas prices. And without a plan to pay for it right away, it means that the money would come directly out of the fund we use to pay for construction projects, which could cost the state of North Carolina up to 7,000 jobs.
This is the problem with Washington. We are facing a situation where oil prices could hit $200 a barrel. Oil companies like Shell and BP just reported record profits for the quarter. And we're arguing over a gimmick that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say that they did something.

-snip-

Paul Krugman (Clinton supporter)

Why doesn't cutting the gas tax this summer make sense? It's Econ 101 tax incidence theory: if the supply of a good is more or less unresponsive to the price, the price to consumers will always rise until the quantity demanded falls to match the quantity supplied. Cut taxes, and all that happens is that the pretax price rises by the same amount. The McCain gas tax plan is a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers.
Is the supply of gasoline really fixed? For this coming summer, it is. Refineries normally run flat out in the summer, the season of peak driving. Any elasticity in the supply comes earlier in the year, when refiners decide how much to put in inventories. The McCain/Clinton gas tax proposal comes too late for that. So it's Econ 101: the tax cut really goes to the oil companies.

The Clinton twist is that she proposes paying for the revenue loss with an excess profits tax on oil companies. In one pocket, out the other. So it's pointless, not evil. But it is pointless, and disappointing.

http://www.alternet.org/wire/

[JackORoses]

15. this is deception

the Gas Tax Holiday would occur this Summer taking money from Roads now.

Hillary wouldn't be able to pass any Windfall taxes until next year.
But this is all beside the point because she is not the nominee.
her promises are hollow.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. No one's mentioned the other half of the cliche:

When the end of the summer comes and it's time to RESTORE the federal gas tax, republicans will be crying for the tax to be permanently removed, otherwise, the democrats will be RAISING TAXES ON THOSE WHO CAN LEAST AFFORD IT!

[bhikkhu]

13. And who would raise taxes right before an election?

It would take another bridge collapse or two to get the tax back, and deferred maintenance on infrastructure is always more expensive than keeping up on things.

Tax holiday is a terrible idea and the wrong message. I'd favor a tax hike, encourage conservation and use the extra funds to fund alternatives research.

[RBInMaine]

8. Gas tax "holidays" are ALWAYS a Republican GIMMICK and SAD Hillary is jumping in with them.

[slinkerwink]

16. and 300,000 construction blue-collar jobs will be lost