Well the pandering has begun. Not too long ago John McCain suggested a
holiday from the Federal gas taxes for the summer. The summer is when
most Americans take the majority of their vacations, and a lot of those
vacations are road trips. Here are a few reasons why I think it is a
bad idea:
1. Getting rid of the gas tax while not making up for it anywhere else will cause the budget deficit to get even worse.
2. Once you get rid of the gas tax you will probably find it very hard to bring it back.
3. It may not cause the gas prices to go down. It would be a great way for the oil and gas companies to raise their prices even more without consumers complaining too much.
4. You would be better off slapping the oil and gas companies with the profits tax that you threatened them with multiple times when you had congressional hearings about their record profits.
5. None of this fixes the underlying problem that we Americans consume too much oil and need to work on alternatives to get to work, school, vacation or whatever. If we keep the prices low there is virtually no chance that people will change their habits away from cars.
6. No one seems to be talking about how the price of everything is going up fairly quickly. By everything I mean airfares, gas, oil, food (rice, wheat, etc...), ice cream, clothes, cars, etc... When the price of everything goes up fairly quickly that is generally referred to as a high rate of inflation. I'm guessing we are going to see our inflation rate take a hike for 2008. We are generally used to seeing high inflation in unstable countries or countries that manage their finances poorly. Oh wait, we qualify for that second part. Doh! If we don't see a significantly higher inflation rate for 2008 then that means the accountants have buried it somewhere.
So overall I think it would be a bad idea to get rid of the gasoline tax for the summer. If you want to get consumption down, raise the tax. People will change their habits. I started changing my driving habits back when gas first hit $3 a gallon. But even at $4 a gallon we are still paying less than a lot of other places in the world.
1. Getting rid of the gas tax while not making up for it anywhere else will cause the budget deficit to get even worse.
2. Once you get rid of the gas tax you will probably find it very hard to bring it back.
3. It may not cause the gas prices to go down. It would be a great way for the oil and gas companies to raise their prices even more without consumers complaining too much.
4. You would be better off slapping the oil and gas companies with the profits tax that you threatened them with multiple times when you had congressional hearings about their record profits.
5. None of this fixes the underlying problem that we Americans consume too much oil and need to work on alternatives to get to work, school, vacation or whatever. If we keep the prices low there is virtually no chance that people will change their habits away from cars.
6. No one seems to be talking about how the price of everything is going up fairly quickly. By everything I mean airfares, gas, oil, food (rice, wheat, etc...), ice cream, clothes, cars, etc... When the price of everything goes up fairly quickly that is generally referred to as a high rate of inflation. I'm guessing we are going to see our inflation rate take a hike for 2008. We are generally used to seeing high inflation in unstable countries or countries that manage their finances poorly. Oh wait, we qualify for that second part. Doh! If we don't see a significantly higher inflation rate for 2008 then that means the accountants have buried it somewhere.
So overall I think it would be a bad idea to get rid of the gasoline tax for the summer. If you want to get consumption down, raise the tax. People will change their habits. I started changing my driving habits back when gas first hit $3 a gallon. But even at $4 a gallon we are still paying less than a lot of other places in the world.