Candidates gas plans will raise gas prices

In terms of the suspending the gas tax, I agree with Obama that's its just a gimmic to get the candidates through an election. 18.4 cents a gallon x a 10 gallon fillup equals $1.84 per fill-up. Figure one a week for the 12 weeks of summer and you get $22 and change. If Hillary and McCain are such strong supporters of this, how come they're not pushing it through the Senate now and only proposing while out on the trail?

But this article is interesting because it criticizes all three candidates plans...
http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB120951030278454321.html

 

I oppose it for the simple reason that oil jobbers will keep the prices the same and pocket that 18.4¢ as pure profit.

No benefit for the driver AND more corporate largesse from Uncle Sugar.

 

Suspending the 18-cent tax won't make any difference in the price of gas. If you're Mr. Convenience Store Owner, the best you're going to do is split the profit; I'll lower my price 9 cents and pocket the other 9 cents.

It astounds me how little all three of the leading presidential contenders know about economics.

 

Obama is opposed to suspending it and instead raising taxes on the oil companies

 

Also, the loss of those tax revenues -- and the resulting delays in construction work -- would cost thousands of JOBS.

But, hey, 18 cents!

 

FWIW:

Thomas Friedman's take on the gas holiday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30friedman.html?em&ex=1209700800&en=5e50edff9f212b25&ei=5087%0A

 

And by the end of the 18-cent gas holiday, when prices have climbed above and beyond the 18-cents to (say) 3.70 a gallon, adding that 18-cents back is going to cause many to go ballistic.

 

This is the smartest, and dumbest, political move made all year. Thousands, nay millions, of dumbasses have just decided McCain is the man for them and Obama is here to kill them all.

We're fucking doomed.

 

Barack may want to ask Jimmy Carter how well THAT idea worked.

 

CNN ran a figure today that the tax money -- which is spent on Highway projects -- could end up costing as many as 350,000 jobs this summer. Construction and repair companies will have to lower bids for jobs and use fewer people to finish said projects, not to mention take much longer to accomplish the projects.
Glad to see a McCain and Hillary stumping for something they know would be just a bad idea.

 

In general, I can't help but think that idea of a windfall tax reeks of fail. But if we're going to do it, don't use it to finance this $0.18/gallon boondoggle.

Why couldn't that "tax" money be used to create a joint private/public company that the oil companies would be compelled to "invest" in? In the short term, it could be used to build a couple more refineries (helping address the current bottleneck) and more importantly be used to fund research into alternative energy. Let the oil companies run it and get the profits from it, but the government runs interference to cut through the environmental and antitrust snags, while ensuring that the companies use their profits in a way that supports the common good.

 

I agree that the tax holiday is a bad idea for the reasons stated above. Problem is, people still avoid long-term solutions. Drilling in ANWR and building more refineries won't help for 5 or 10 years? Fine, but opponents have been saying the same damn thing for 10 or 15 years now. If we'd have done it 10 years ago, we might not be in this pickle now. And seeing as how oil prices jump $3 a barrel every time someone farts near a pipeline in Nigeria, what kind of positive effect would a greenlit plan to build several refineries and increase drilling in the U.S. have?