Clinton and McCain are proposing a summer gas tax holiday to give consumers a break. Obama slammed this idea, saying, "This isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer, it’s an idea designed to get them through an election." Who has the moral high ground on this one? Are greater gas taxes a good idea or a bad idea? Tell us what you think below. Read the whole story on Yahoo! News by clicking here.
What this country needs is a candidate with a big Manhattan Project energy, get-off-gasoline-for-good plan. We are way too late in needing this. So this gas holiday thing is just a palliative for summer, ultimately pointless and expensive. I’m still for Hillary though I think she is wrong on this issue. (I guess you thought I thought she could do no wrong.)
the cherokee rose - 5/1/2008 11:42 AM
gas tax plan???gas TAX plan??gas tax PLAN???oh, come on now..what needs to be done is get rid of all those fat cat executive types who are running the oil CARTELS who literally control our lives..or, maybe, just maybe, we really ARE running out of oil..
Maurine H - 5/1/2008 11:46 AM
Just posted this in another section, but it really belongs here.
The gas tax “holiday” is a ruse. First McCain, now Clinton, trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. I was intrigued by the idea until I went on-line and read some of the economists’ commentaries and realized that we are being had by this illogical- and, in the long run, costly- come-on. There’s a good, understandable discussion on http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/17/burman_comment…. Basically, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
phyllis Doyle Pepe - 5/1/2008 3:57 PM
Of course, it’s a ruse!!! Clinton and McCain aren’t even in the BIGWHITEHOUSE yet, so unless they can convince the rest of their congressional buddies to adopt this silliness, it’s a lot of sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing.
Lucille O'Connor - 5/1/2008 12:11 PM
Our president squandered the opportunity to have Americans cut back on gasoline and oil consumption after 9/11. Americans wanted to take action and would have done anything at that time, even oh my, that word, sacrifice. Relief from gas taxes is not a good idea. We should boycott gasoline buying for one day. Who’s with me to organize a call to all Americans to boycott buying gasoline nationwide on some Friday in America? But seriously, OPEC has the capacity to produce more oil, they just aren’t. It is okay for our sons and daughters to spill their blood and youth to police their part of the wordl. They repay us by producing oil at a rate well below the rate they produced oil at a year ago. We need to use less gasoline, and if every American cut back on using gasoline by 10-15%, you’d see production go up and prices go down. Lucille O’Connor
JeJe De - 5/1/2008 1:47 PM
Amen! And why oh why can’t someone in government leadership say that? It is a mystery to me. The American people will try to do what is necessary if they are just asked!
Arlene C - 5/1/2008 4:02 PM
Dear Lucille, regarding a boycott of gasoline buying for one day: I have advocated on this site previously that is all Americans would park their cars one day a week we could cut the oil companies profits by 1/7. Even those who work could do a Saturday or Sunday. Are Americans still too spoiled? The noose is getting tighter.
Deni G - 5/1/2008 4:09 PM
This sounds like a very interesting idea, to me!
Ms. Dee - 5/2/2008 8:59 AM
Yes! Yes! I like it. We could all stay outta the air and learn to do business with our neighbors.
CAROLINE MJLVEY - 5/1/2008 6:54 PM
I am with you. Well really my Husband who does the driving is with it. Just let me know what to do. I think the big so and so’s need to know they can not treat us as puppets. We are humans that mostly live from paycheck to paycheck. My Husband pays $200.00 a month just to go to work and back home. Then he has to fill up for my doctors appointments. His gas tank holds about 12 gallons.
CK en Queue - 5/1/2008 12:56 PM
We’ve just had the only gas tax holiday which is assured of providing households with direct relief…the tax rebate check. Anything else is counterproductive.
Arlene C - 5/1/2008 3:56 PM
Dear CK, And that tax rebate that we are receiving was borrowed from the middle east and China. That’s a scary thought. Hope everyone enjoys the shopping trip.
Ms. Dee - 5/2/2008 9:03 AM
No, no. We didn’t borrow the stimulus money. We sold arms to Dubai. That’s where this stimulus money’s coming from.
Willow K - 5/1/2008 12:59 PM
Its a bad idea. The money saved per person is minimal, yet would cost the highway trust fund millions (maybe billions??). I heard this might mean many highway construction jobs would be lost for the summer. And there’s no guarantee that if the tax were lifted, the oil companies wouldn’t find a way to raise prices even more. What is needed is both a comprehensive conservation and alternative energy plan, as well as somehow curtailing the percent profit oil companies can make, which seems limitless now.
mary lou s - 5/1/2008 1:00 PM
who here remembers the gas lines in 1973? that was a fake shortage brought about by politics (opec). we are now confronted by a new reality that you can call peak oil. (seriously, google “peak oil”) it is the concept that we have already used up at least half of the world’s oil resources—the easily accessed half.
for both political and practical reasons, we need to convert closed manufacturing facilities to produce wind turbines and solar panels, and contractors need to learn how to place them for maximum effect (contractors = people working).
one characteristic of peak oil is an inflexible supply, thereby boosting the price enormously whenever demand goes up a little. demand is rising in india and china.
in the past, saudi arabia has pumped just enough oil to keep us from developing alternatives. the gas tax can maintain a high enough price to support the development of alternatives. had the supposedly sainted ronald reagan not undone all of jimmy carter’s efforts to develop alternatives, we would be off our oil addiction now.
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What this country needs is a candidate with a big Manhattan Project energy, get-off-gasoline-for-good plan. We are way too late in needing this. So this gas holiday thing is just a palliative for summer, ultimately pointless and expensive. I’m still for Hillary though I think she is wrong on this issue. (I guess you thought I thought she could do no wrong.)
gas tax plan???gas TAX plan??gas tax PLAN???oh, come on now..what needs to be done is get rid of all those fat cat executive types who are running the oil CARTELS who literally control our lives..or, maybe, just maybe, we really ARE running out of oil..
Just posted this in another section, but it really belongs here.
The gas tax “holiday” is a ruse. First McCain, now Clinton, trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. I was intrigued by the idea until I went on-line and read some of the economists’ commentaries and realized that we are being had by this illogical- and, in the long run, costly- come-on. There’s a good, understandable discussion on http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/17/burman_comment…. Basically, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Of course, it’s a ruse!!! Clinton and McCain aren’t even in the BIG WHITE HOUSE yet, so unless they can convince the rest of their congressional buddies to adopt this silliness, it’s a lot of sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing.
Our president squandered the opportunity to have Americans cut back on gasoline and oil consumption after 9/11. Americans wanted to take action and would have done anything at that time, even oh my, that word, sacrifice. Relief from gas taxes is not a good idea. We should boycott gasoline buying for one day. Who’s with me to organize a call to all Americans to boycott buying gasoline nationwide on some Friday in America? But seriously, OPEC has the capacity to produce more oil, they just aren’t. It is okay for our sons and daughters to spill their blood and youth to police their part of the wordl. They repay us by producing oil at a rate well below the rate they produced oil at a year ago. We need to use less gasoline, and if every American cut back on using gasoline by 10-15%, you’d see production go up and prices go down. Lucille O’Connor
Amen! And why oh why can’t someone in government leadership say that? It is a mystery to me. The American people will try to do what is necessary if they are just asked!
Dear Lucille, regarding a boycott of gasoline buying for one day: I have advocated on this site previously that is all Americans would park their cars one day a week we could cut the oil companies profits by 1/7. Even those who work could do a Saturday or Sunday. Are Americans still too spoiled? The noose is getting tighter.
This sounds like a very interesting idea, to me!
Yes! Yes! I like it. We could all stay outta the air and learn to do business with our neighbors.
I am with you. Well really my Husband who does the driving is with it. Just let me know what to do. I think the big so and so’s need to know they can not treat us as puppets. We are humans that mostly live from paycheck to paycheck. My Husband pays $200.00 a month just to go to work and back home. Then he has to fill up for my doctors appointments. His gas tank holds about 12 gallons.
We’ve just had the only gas tax holiday which is assured of providing households with direct relief…the tax rebate check. Anything else is counterproductive.
Dear CK, And that tax rebate that we are receiving was borrowed from the middle east and China. That’s a scary thought. Hope everyone enjoys the shopping trip.
No, no. We didn’t borrow the stimulus money. We sold arms to Dubai. That’s where this stimulus money’s coming from.
Its a bad idea. The money saved per person is minimal, yet would cost the highway trust fund millions (maybe billions??). I heard this might mean many highway construction jobs would be lost for the summer. And there’s no guarantee that if the tax were lifted, the oil companies wouldn’t find a way to raise prices even more. What is needed is both a comprehensive conservation and alternative energy plan, as well as somehow curtailing the percent profit oil companies can make, which seems limitless now.
who here remembers the gas lines in 1973? that was a fake shortage brought about by politics (opec). we are now confronted by a new reality that you can call peak oil. (seriously, google “peak oil”) it is the concept that we have already used up at least half of the world’s oil resources—the easily accessed half.
for both political and practical reasons, we need to convert closed manufacturing facilities to produce wind turbines and solar panels, and contractors need to learn how to place them for maximum effect (contractors = people working).
one characteristic of peak oil is an inflexible supply, thereby boosting the price enormously whenever demand goes up a little. demand is rising in india and china.
in the past, saudi arabia has pumped just enough oil to keep us from developing alternatives. the gas tax can maintain a high enough price to support the development of alternatives. had the supposedly sainted ronald reagan not undone all of jimmy carter’s efforts to develop alternatives, we would be off our oil addiction now.