John McCain’s Tax News
[Guest post by DRJ]
John McCain is in the Presidential race, too, although it’s easy to forget since he’s not in the news as much as the Democratic contenders. However, McCain should get some press today because of these two tax stories:
McCain has introduced legislation called the “Summer Gas Tax Holiday” bill that “would suspend the 18.4 cents per gallon Federal gas tax, and the 24.4 cent diesel tax, between Memorial Day and Labor Day 2008.”
In other tax news, McCain has released his federal tax returns for 2006 and 2007 but his wife won’t be releasing her returns “in the interest of protecting the privacy of her children …”
I’m sure the McCain campaign hopes there is more coverage of the first tax story than the second.
— DRJ
I don’t hold out any hope this gas tax holiday will happen. The feds and the states are addicted to the gas tax revenues that they divert and waste. Also, truth be told, the states and the feds take in more per gallon than do the retailers or BIG OIL do.
PCD (5ebd0e) — 4/18/2008 @ 12:00 pmI agree, PCD, but it’s a smart move. The LA Times blog reports that McCain offered to let Clinton and Obama join as cosponsors but they declined. Thus, this fall, NcCain will be able to say he tried to help consumers more than the Democratic nominee did.
DRJ (a431ca) — 4/18/2008 @ 12:24 pmthe gas tax holiday is a contemptible electioneering maneuver, a bone tossed to the peons by a man who disrespects our intelligence.
we’re running a huge budget deficit, and we’re addicted to foreign oil. mccain’s measure would only exacerbate these problems. fortunately, it will never become law, and the peons are smart enough to figure out who’s right. why not free beer for everyone? cindy mccain has enough beer to host a summer-long kegger for our country.
assistant devil's advocate (d2a806) — 4/18/2008 @ 2:31 pmA gas tax holiday is not going to change our oil imports much, recent price hikes and the sustained consumption rates have already shown that there is a limited amount of elasticity in demand.
As for our budget deficit, it has been coming down substantially in the last couple of years, and its not really that high as a percent of GDP historically speaking.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/18/2008 @ 2:34 pmSo, ada, which is a bigger “bone tossed to the peons”, the tax holiday or national health care?
Which is a bigger threat to personal liberty?
Rob Crawford (b5d1c2) — 4/18/2008 @ 2:38 pmthank you for asking mr. crawford. the last advance in national health care was the republican-sponsored medicare prescription drug benefit, which i thought was a giant scam perpetrated on seniors by the health insurance industry. i’d have to say it was even worse than a summer-long gas tax holiday.
i would support a true “single payer” system. i’m opposed to the clinton healthcare proposal and the one in massachusetts, because they do nothing to eliminate the corporate inefficiencies and profiteering. they represent the worst of both worlds.
assistant devil's advocate (d2a806) — 4/18/2008 @ 2:47 pmThis is another good way to tease out the implications of the liberals’ energy policy and make them transparent to the voters.
If you remember the demands from the left for carbon taxes to reduce our petroleum demands “for the common good,” this trumps that position. I’ve often said that there was something very wrongheaded in thinking that the solution to $3 a gallon gas was in making it cost $4 a gallon.
Competent politicians will see that McCain’s proposal makes a lot more sense in an election year than carbon taxes, cap-and-trade schemes, remote controlled thermostats, or other proposals intended to reduce energy use.
Joseph Somsel (e5cbf5) — 4/18/2008 @ 4:20 pmIt stands as much chance of passing as dose a snowman in death valley with the demacrooks in charge
krazy kagu (2afdbd) — 4/19/2008 @ 7:48 am