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'Score one for Obama,' wrote Greg Mankiw, a former chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. 'In light of the side effects associated with driving ... gasoline taxes should be higher than they are, not lower.'
Republican McCain and Democrat Clinton, who is battling Obama for their party's nomination, both want to suspend the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax during the peak summer driving months to ease the pain of soaring gas prices. The tax is used to fund the Highway Trust Fund that builds and maintains roads and bridges.
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A 'holiday' would result in a 10B loss of revenue. Based on several economists I've heard, the 18 cents would be made up when supplies run dry as people drive more. We don't have enough refinery capacity or enough oil to handle it.
And, anyone remember that bridge collapse last year? The problem is, people want stuff - and don't want to pay for it. Someone has to pay for the infrastructure repair in this country.
Obama actually voted for the same thing in Illinois and it failed miserably. The oil companies, as oil companies ALWAYS do, gauged the consumers the difference and just pocketed the money themselves.
Obama has experience and is telling it like it is. The other two are clowning for political points with the lemmings.