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Gas Tax Holiday....good idea or not?
As a short term response to rising gas prices, McCain and Clinton both support a gas tax holiday by suspending the federal tax on gas between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Clinton would offset the lost tax revenue by a comparable windfall profit tax on oil companies; Mcain would offset it, but wont specify how.
Obama does not support it at all.
The federal gas tax is a flat rate of $.18/gal. The tax is earmarked for the highway trust fund to be used for infrastructure repair and related transportation projects.
According to estimates from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), suspending the tax for 3 months would save about $28 for those who drive about 12,000 miles/year....or computed another way, about 60 cents/day. Double that if you drive 24,000 miles/yr.
On the flip side, AASHTO estimates a loss of $8.5 billion to the highway trust fund for critical bridge/highway repair projects...and a loss of about 300,000 jobs.
I'm with Obama on this. Its an election year "solution" that really provides no meaningful savings at all to most consumers.
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"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
~ Voltaire
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