What happened to the Gas Tax vacation?

Question

Back in April, McCain and Hillary were talking about their brilliant idea to have a gas tax vacation beginning Memorial Day.  It would have been 18 cents a gallon tax break.  Gas was 3.51/gallon at my local gas station when I first heard McCain propose this and after the holiday weekend that he said it would begin...the new price is 4.08.

  Did the 2 of them do anything at all to get this done, or was it just an empty promise they didn't ever intend to keep, just free votes from stupid people?  What does it say about their leadership that it didn't happen?

  Was it a good idea?  Would the price of gas gone down at all?  Or would they just pocket the extra change.  If they did lower the price would we have noticed?  Would the 25-40 dollars that optimists say it could save the average drive over the course of the summer make a difference?

Would it have hurt the economy in the long run?

Does it make Obama look like the wise one for avoinding the gimmick?

Robert S · Accepted Answer

An empty promise doomed to massive failure down the road when the tax would have to be re-initiated. Imagine re-initiating the tax once gas prices climb to $6.00 or $7.00... Maybe even $10.00 a gallon. The ideas sole purpose was to pander for votes when she needed it most.

Would it have hurt the economy in the long run? Yes, without question.

Does it make Obama look wise? Yes.

Anonymous · Answer

It was a stupid idea.  If it dropped the price by any amount at all, that would spur demand and the oil companies would raise their prices accordingly.  The 'tax cut' would effectively be commandeered by the oil companies, for themselves.  

At the same time, the roads would still need to be maintained.  If  the govt tried to make up the lost revenue by taxing the oil companies directly, the oil companies would simply pass that additional cost onto the consumers. 

Yeah it was entirely a gimmick.  Obama looked good for avoiding it.

H Y · Answer

It was a political talking point to get more votes...do you seriously think that while we surrender hundreds of millions of dollars to our transportation systems that the oil companies will be "nice guys", benefiting from the "holiday" and and giving us MAYBE a few cents per gallon? They have nobody to answer to and therefore do not care so why should we just trust them to be gracious when they don't have to and will not anyways? I say nationalize the oil industry and put these CEO's and primary shareholders on trial for Treason...

intrakitt · Answer

I just heard on CNN that Cheney said it would not be worth it, and has never been seriously considered. Even many Democrats in congress said it wasn't something they would vote on.

Michael M · Answer

Lousy idea - died at birth. Hillary and McCain both had proposals for this and it was stupid then and it's still stupid...

What happened to the Gas Tax vacation?

Related Questions

Trending Questions