Obama Voted for Gas Tax Holiday in 2000
by Judd WileyApril 24th, 2008, 8:45 pm
Barack Obama opposes John McCain’s federal gas-tax “holiday,” which would eliminate the 18.4-cent tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Yet he voted for such a measure in 2000 when he was an Illinois state senator.
Sen. Obama voted for a six-month, five-percentage point break on the state’s 6.25% gas sales tax. The reduction of the tax, which goes into a general revenue fund, passed on a 55-1 vote and included measures designed to ensure that the benefits of the tax break reached consumers. At one point, Sen. Obama jokingly asked on the Senate floor whether it would be possible to install placards on gas-station pumps telling motorists he had helped win temporary price relief.
Obama’s gas tax holiday did little to save money for consumers. McCain’s will be similarly ineffectual.
How about eliminating the federal gas tax? Why must we choose between (a) the status quo, (b) a short reprieve, or (c) higher gas taxes?
As Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren of the Cato Institute argued last year:
Oil is not disappearing, and when it becomes more expensive, market agents will substitute away from gasoline to save money. The link between oil price shocks and recessions, although real in the 1970s, has been much more benign since 1985 because of the termination of price controls. Market actors properly account for energy costs in their purchasing decisions absent government intervention. …
State and federal gasoline taxes should be abolished. Local governments should tax gasoline only to the extent necessary to pay for roads when user charges are not feasible. If government feels compelled to more aggressively regulate vehicle tailpipe emissions or access to public roadways, pollution taxes and road user fees are better means of doing so than fuel taxes. Regardless, perfectly internalizing motor vehicle externalities would likely make the economy less efficient—not more—by inducing motorists into even more (economically) inefficient mass transit use.
The arguments advanced against increasing gasoline taxes are applicable to the broader discussion about America’s reliance on oil generally. The case for policies designed to discourage oil consumption is nearly as threadbare as the case for increasing the gasoline tax -and for largely the same reasons.
Read the entire policy analysis.
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Posted in Gas Prices, Gas Taxes, Oil, Politics |
Again your superficial analysis comes to the fore Judd. Barack Obama did vote for a gas tax holiday in 2000 while in Illinois but concluded it was not the right thing:
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CBS News says Obama voted for the temporary lifting of the tax three times in the state Senate. The tax holiday was finally approved during a special session in June of 2000, when Illinois motorists were furious that gas prices had just topped $2 a gallon in Chicago. The moratorium lifted the state’s 5 percent sales tax on gasoline through the end of 2000.
Obama told constituents that gasoline prices would drop: “Gas retailers must post on each pump a statement that indicates that the state tax has been suspended and that this temporary elimination of the tax should be reflected in the price per gallon of gas.”
During one state Senate floor debate, Obama joked that he wanted signs on gas pumps in his district to say, “Senator Obama reduced your gasoline prices.”
Now, running for president, Obama says the tax reduction was a complete failure, and that “the oil companies, the retailers” ended up benefiting most because they raised prices by the entire amount of the tax cut.
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Bottomline is he voted for the gas tax holiday in 2000 then changed his mind because the intent of the action didn’t meet what actually happened. Slam him for hypocrisy or praise the fact he learned from his previous action? You’ve shown that it all depends on your previous biases.
You read my post too quickly, Meaver. I merely pointed out that Obama voted for a gas tax holiday in 2000, which didn’t work. I did not call him a hypocrite.
My analysis was that neither Obama nor McCain support eliminating the federal gas tax, which I think should be eliminated.
Here’s why: If the federal government wants to be in the business of building highways, they should use the 30%+ of our incomes that they take every April 15.
That’s plenty of money for highways, bridges, tunnels, etc. No need for an additional surcharge.
This will be the subject of a longer post. Stay tuned, Meaver. And be careful in that government cubicle.
Nice way to wile your way out fo that one Wiley. “I didn’t call him a hypocrite, I simply noted he voted for it a few years back while opposing it now.”
Slimey. the point of your post was clear to anyone with a brain, including this govt employee.