Comments

You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Home Front Economy

Democrats want gas tax hike

2008-07-21

Of course they do.

WASHINGTON — The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.

Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded — with a prod from the construction industry — that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.

Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.

"We'll put all things on the table," Oberstar said, but the gas tax "is the cornerstone. Nothing else will work without the underpinning of the higher user fee gas tax."

With gas prices setting records daily, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and former Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a 90-day suspension of the federal fuel tax to give drivers a little relief at the pump. The fuel taxes go into the Highway Trust Fund, which is used for road construction and repair and mass transit. Clinton suggested making up for the loss by imposing a windfall profit tax on oil companies, an idea that Republicans rejected.

McCain said the money could come out of the general Treasury fund, in effect adding to the federal deficit, and is still getting mileage from the idea. "Some economists don't think much of my gas tax holiday," he said in a speech this month. "But the American people like it, and so do small business owners."

Posted by:Steve White

#18 If they are really mad at us SUV owners take away the tax break for > 5000lb small trucks.

Posted by: 3dc 2008-07-21 19:51

#17 Perhaps this effing congress could streamline their allowance instead of stealing from the parent's purse/wallet. If my kids acted like this there would be a spanking of high magnitude.

Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-07-21 17:42

#16 Raise taxes on gas. Lower gas prices. So simple you'd think it would be obvious to everyone.

Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2008-07-21 15:52

#15 How about just SHOOT all current politicians, and establish a rule that no lawyer can run for public office (conflict of interest). I'm not sure doctors, dentists, engineers, or truck drivers would be any better, but they sure as he$$ can be any worse.

Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-07-21 15:29

#14 Windfall profits tax on self serving autobiographies of politicians.

Posted by: tu3031 2008-07-21 13:07

#13 How about a hot air tax on politicians in Washington? If they tax gasoline they will lose the election. Let's not tell them.

Posted by: JohnQC 2008-07-21 12:54

#12 Women, minorities and children hit worse. [Well, it is a regressive tax, particularly aimed at SUV soccer moms].

Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-07-21 11:09

#11 The fact is, economic efficiency requires resources be priced at marginal cost, and marginal cost includes the depreciation of roads and bridges, as well as the damage done to vehicles by poorly maintained infrastructure, excess deaths and injuries, and time wasted. Marginal cost is proportional to weight and miles driven, and miles driven is roughly proportional to the amount of gasoline consumed.

Posted by: Perfesser 2008-07-21 10:23

#10 If we had any leadership in the GOP, it would be a landslide election year for them. The dhimocrats are ripe for pounding with their failure on every aspect of their party platform. As it stands now, we might only just have parity when it comes to seat swapping.

Posted by: DarthVader 2008-07-21 09:43

#9 If the government does not have the money to continue over budget projects then they should stop. Taxes should not be increased to pay for the increased cost. Here in NJ it all goes to graft anyway.

Posted by: Hellfish 2008-07-21 09:21

#8 Unfortunately the GOP leadership doesn't seem to have any guts or brains.

Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-07-21 08:40

#7 even if funding had remained the same, there has been a huge hit in the deliverable end products due to the enormous rise in concrete, asphalt, and steel prices. Just can't build as much with the funds available. Trouble is, if they raise the taxes, there's no ensuring that the money will be spent on priority projects and not the Robt KKK Byrd parkway with the fools in charge. Oberstar is an idiot

Posted by: Frank G 2008-07-21 08:25

#6 A sliding gas tax would be nice. We can afford to pay more tax when gas is cheaper, ease up off us when it is higher.

Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-07-21 08:20

#5 Oil prices have at least temporarily peaked and fallen back close to 10%; gas prices 'should' follow on the next tanker load delivered. It would be the perfect time to 'reconfigure' the gas tax so that the consumer does not see it at the pump - instead prices will drop but by less than they should, and the consumer will be angry at the oil companies rather than the government.
In truth, the government actually has a point - it is difficult to budget long-term construction projects on unexpected rapidly changing revenues - but does anyone believe that a percent based tax would work any better? If such had been the case a year ago we would be hearing about grandiose plans to spend the windfall to buy our votes, and then we would be asked for a higher percentage whenever prices dropped back. (And they probably would roll back part of the windfall in return for votes.)

Posted by: Menhaden S 2008-07-21 07:57

#4 It's all part of the plan to get us off oil (foreign and domestic) by making it too expensive.

And it'll work - eventually....

Posted by: Bobby 2008-07-21 05:56

#3 Let them do it.

If the GOP leadership had any guts and brains, they'd use the obstructionism, corruption, pork, etc, against the dems, and ice that cake with this tax hike.

That woudl be enought to get peopel to vote GOP - thats also if the GOP leadership had bothered to put in solid candidates instead of these RINO clones it keeps trying to push.

Posted by: OldSpook 2008-07-21 02:09

#2 Democrats want to lose that bad?

Posted by: 3dc 2008-07-21 01:07

#1 Democrats want ~~gas~~ tax hike on everybody but themselves

There - fixed.

Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-07-21 00:36

00:00