President Election 2008: Clinton, Obama keep up federal tax on gasoline
President Election 2008: Clinton, Obama keep up federal tax on gasoline
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are continuing to spar over Clinton’s proposal to suspend the federal tax on gasoline, as the candidates close in on Tuesday’s primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.
Sen. Obama, D-Ill., is running advertisements in both states that slam Clinton’s proposal to suspend the 18.4-cent-a-gallon tax, calling it a gimmick and promoting his own energy plan and a proposal for a $1,000 middle-class tax cut.
“This gas tax, which was first proposed by John McCain and then quickly adopted by Sen. Clinton, is a classic Washington gimmick,” Obama said in an interview on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Video: Primary Primer
Political author Nick Ragone speaks to Kelsey Hubbard about why Indiana is a must-win for Clinton and the historic role of superdelegates in the 2008 presidential race. (May 5)Many economists have thrown cold water on the idea to suspend the gasoline tax, saying it won’t do much to help drivers. Clinton, however, has defended the idea and continues to call for a gasoline tax holiday.
In an interview on Sunday on ABC-TV’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” she sidestepped a question about economists’ support for the idea.
“I’m not going to put my lot in with economists, because I know if we get it right, if we actually did it right, if we had a president who used all the tools of the presidency, we would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively,” Clinton said.
Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., is also calling for a break from the gasoline tax over the summer driving season.
Obama slips in Indiana
With the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina just a day away, Obama’s standing against Clinton in Indiana has slipped. But Obama remains ahead in North Carolina, making for what looks to be a divided outcome on Tuesday.
In the latest average of polls from RealClearPolitics, Clinton is ahead of Obama 47.2% to 42.6% in Indiana. But in North Carolina, Obama leads Clinton 49.0% to 42.5%.
In Indiana, Obama and Clinton were much closer in the middle of April. An April 14-16 Downs Center poll showed Obama with 50% of the vote to Clinton’s 45%. But an April 28-30 poll showed Clinton with 52% of the vote to Obama’s 45%.
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WHICHEVER FUTURE PRESIDENT AMERICA RECIEVES MUST ADDRESS ONE OF THE KEY ISSUE THAT IS DIRECTLY LINKED TO THE HIGH PRICE OF GASOLINE, THE ISSUE IS A PRETTY LARGE ONE MY MY OPINION THAT ISSUE IS THE 9 TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT THE UNITED STATES IS IN. 5 TRILLION OF THAT DEBT COME FROM OUR PRESENT PRESIDENT, PRESIDENT BUSH! OUR COUNTRY AS A WHOLE IS SUFFERING ECONOMIC ISSUES. THE U.S. DOLLAR HAS LOST 40% OF ITS VALUE WHICH IS THE MAIN CAUSE OF HIGH GASOLINE PRICES. THE PRICES CAN BE REDUCED BY THE OBIVOUS, THE U.S. BEGINS TO REPAY ITS DEBTS AND OUR DOLLAR CAN RESTORE SOME OF ITS VALUE AND GASOLINE WILL COST LESS… MUCH MORE LESS THAN A GAS TAX VACATION. ANOTHER REASON GAS IS SO EXPENSIVE IS A SIMPLE EFFECT FROM SUPPLY AND DEMAND. U.S. CITIZENS DEMAND OIL AND GASOLINE PRODUCTS AT THE SAME QUANITY AS THEY DID WHEN GAS WAS LESS EXPENSIVE THEY WILL SUPPLY IT AT HIGHER PRICES. IF WE CONSERVED MORE GAS STOP DRIVING SUVs AND V8 AUTOMOBLIES THE PRICE OF GAS MAY ALSO GO DOWN, MAYBE BY AS MUCH AS THE TAX VACATION IS GOING TO BE AN 18CENT DECREASE IS ACHIEVEABLE WITH OUT CUTTING ANY TAXES. THAT THE REASON WHERE IN THE ISSUES THAT WE ARE IN. THE AMERICAN POPULATION CONTUINES TO DEMAND FROM GOVERNEMENT UNHELPFUL AND DAMAGING REQUEST. TAX CUTS ARE HELPFUL BUT NOT WHEN ITS ONLY GOING TO MAKE THE 9 TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT GROW HIGHER. WE DEMAND TOOOOOOO MUCH FROM GOVERNEMNT AND DONT WANT TO COVER THE COST. TAX CUTS ARE GOOD FRO INDIVIDULAS NOT FOR THE COUNTRY AS A WHOLE AND AS A RESULT WE ARE FILLING THE EFFECTS OF OUR BAD JUDGEMENTS. WE CAN’T BLAME THE PRESIDENT, CONGRESS, OR THE SENATE… THEY ARE ONLY GIVING US WHAT THEY BELIEVE WE WANT… WE MUST SPEAK UP AND EXPRESS OUR TRUE DESIRE… WE WANT THE RESTORATION OF THE U.S. DOLLAR, WE WANT TO CUT DOWN OUR GASOLINE CONSUMPTION, AND WE WANT TO ADOPT A MORE CONSERVATIVE BEHAVIOR. AS A COUNTRY WE MUST AT UNITED AND CHANGE OUR BEHAVIOR BEFORE OUR ECONOMY FACES A COMPLETE CALASPE… AND AS FOR SENTOR CLINTON, HOW CAN SHE DOWN PLAY SIMIPLE ECONOMIC FACTS. MAYBE IF SHE OPENED HER EYES AND HAD SOME ECONOMIC BACK GROUND SHE CAN TRULLY FIND A SOLUTION TO OUR ECONOMIC ISSUES. SHE NEED TO THINK OF A BETTER SOLUTION…. TAX CUTS ARE NOT THE ANSWER WE NEED OUR TAXES TO REPLAY OUR DEBTS!!!!!
You know if Mickey Mouse would drop the price of gas and groceries to where working families could afford to drive back and fourth to work and feed their families heck i would vote for him myself!Come on these gas prices are killing people we can not afford the gas to go to work as it is and food well you almost have to be a millionaire to go to the grocery store and feed your family now days $4.00 for a gallon of milk come on the cows are gonna go on strike!!!! I would vote for whom ever drops these crazy prices and Clinton is not gonna do it she is just like Bill and his great idea for welfare reform yeah right look where that got people jobless,homeless and starving IF Obahma would keep his promises im all for him being president just NO more Clintons and Bushes.NO MORE WARS I SAY BRING THEM HOME AND LEAVE IRAQ AND IRAN ALONE.
we the Americans have suffered enough we are loosing our jobs due to foreign countries and they will work for cheaper wages we are being cut on our income tax returns the working american families got back less this year then any other year buying food for 2 weeks used to cost $200.00 now it cost $450.00
gasoline was $2.50 a gallon now its almost $4.00 a gallon PLEASE this is rediculous the rich get richer and the poor get poorer RIGHT? we are headed for Depresion!!!! More american children are going to do without food and be hungry because we will have a choice gas to go to work or food to eat I know alot of you agree with me something has to be done Think about it!!!! Auto dealers are gonna go out of buisness due to high fuel costs and oil refineries are gonna lose buisness because people are gonna go back to horse and buggies and bicycles I personaly live in a small town and gas is up to $3.59 a gallon myself and others here are ready to ride horses forget our cars,trucks and suburbans and affordable vacations well pitch a tent in your back yard there’s your vacation.
why am I a redneck? Hilbily I mean Hill-a-ray uses her middle name. What is Obama afraid of? will no one vote for him if he uses his middle name?
It is no longer a common practice to use ones middle name. Also, note that more and more people are using their nicknames in place of their actual (legal) names, for example, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter. The reason there is so much ‘interest’ in the middle names of both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, is that they are unique, therefore, an easy target for ridicule or prejudice by the mean spirited segment of our society.
Not to mention that there is a feeling of arrogance in people that use all three of there names. It is not viable to use more than two names in formal or informal company.
It seems that in America it’s customary for the parents to choose the First and Middle names of their children.
Anyone who would base their vote on a person’s name is an imbecile.
My hobby is designing electric cars. The EV1 was an energy disaster. It was right to put it way. Hybrid technology is the necessary interim step. Think of it this way: Electricity, like car movement, is a kinetic process. Advancement to a truly efficeint, and therefore light (600 lbs.)highly safe vehicle that gets 400 mpg and that is completely energy flexible (fuel, hydrogen, gas, solar etc.), requires advancement in the intelligence of the eletric and mechanical circuitry (a mechanical transmission is oil and gear circuitry.) The best way to do this is to advance the control cicuitry of hybrids. Forcing all electric before it is ready is foolish and fulish. Increasing cost of fuel per taxes or shortages forces markets to develop the right technology. Trust the magic hand.
Yes I did watch that movie. Good movie!
At the end when they ask WHO did it and they provide the pick list of answers they did not list the California Legislature for demanding a 10% (IIRC) EV rate in a few years. The talked about it at the beginning of the movie then left them off the list at the end.
Stupid legislators. If they had just kept their mouths shut and their hands to themselves EV’s would be all over the place by now. But NooooOOOoooo, they had to have it all their way.
Of course, only in California can you have the PUC set the buy rate and the sell rate for electricity and call it “de-regulation”. LOL!
Razzy, I agree with you 100 percent. Oil prices are reflecting every aspect of our economy. All of you who think just driving less is a solution your are so wrong. My company is probally going to go under sooner or later because of the drastict increase of fuel, we have downsized due to lack of work and lack of profit. We must destroy the dependence on oil to survive. If a candidate simply said in non-political words, “I promise to let Iran, Iraq, and everyother country to fend for themselves, it is time to care about our people.”…I would vote for them in a heartbeat. It makes me sick to hear McCain basically say he is going to keep on keepin on with this war bull#$%26*, and Hillary to say we will destroy Iran. Screw everyone else, let them kill themselves. Maybe politicians should take a clue from the movie Team American World Police. With all of the money Bush has wasted in Iraq we could all have healthcare, help with our education system, and help our growing number of homeless here in America. A father and son duo has worked very hard to make themselves and all of their buddies filthy rich for a long time, lets not make a husband and wife continue the tradition! Has anyone seen the movie “The Skulls”? There is a power above our joke of government that will continue to get richer and richer as the middle class and lower class merge, creating only the rich and poor. Sounds like communism to me! The solution is easy, supply and demand. They have us by the balls, we need oil to go to work everyday…but if I do not have a job how can I survive? Whomever voted for the t*** currently in office is either rich or stupid! I am neither!
It is sad that the writers of South Park make more sense than politicians, but they do! I have never wrote about politics on a site like this, I can no longer take the ignorance of people. The fact is nothing anyone says here will change a d*** thing, even if you are right. Maybe we just need to find the greatest actor in the world to solve our problems. Durka Durka Dur!
Why aren’t the automakers making flex-fuel vehicles that are efficient? It seems only gas guzzling SUV’s are available with the e-85 option.
Because grain based ethanol is a bad joke on people too stupid to do math but want to “feel good” about the environment.
Grain ethanol takes more energy to produce than it releases when burned. It is negative energy.
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So it only makes sense to only provide flex-fuel on gas guzzlers because it’s a natural marketing assumption that people stupid enough to buy a gas guzzler in this day and age would also be stupid enough to think flex-fuel is a good thing!
These candidates “travel” around asking for financial contibutions to aid
their campaign. Paying to be lied to is not anywhere in my budget. The Republicans represent global socialism and the Democrats represent corporate hegemony. Why? Because that is who is paying their bills. There is no political party in the US that represents the will of the people.
Get this straight before you vote, and write in a logical candidate please!! Light trucks and SUVs gotta get cheaper soon, especially the ones without FlexFuel. When the bottom falls out of the stockmarket, everything will be on sale.
The problem is that oil companies feel the need to have record profits and abuse the american consumer. If everyone in the USA purchased a hybrid (NOT WORTH THE MONEY, EVEN WITH GAS AT $5 per gallon) and consumed half of the gas, Exxon, Conco Phillips, and Chevron would double the price of gas so they could stay of track to make record profits next year. We need gas as a country and we are at their mercy.
Don’t over generalize- it depends on your driving habits… Mine has saved me tremendous dollar amounts. I do a lot of city driving though (50+ miles per day in city.)
If you don’t drive many miles per day or spend most of your time on the highway then you are correct.
Does anyone remember the old toy car tracks? You put your car on an electrified track and plug the track into a power socket, crank on the power, and watch your toy car loop around for hours on end. Lets use that technology for actual cars.
As a plus people could have work installing this kind of equipment into the current infrastructure.
Vote Quimby! Here’s another telling picture in this election I would like to shed some light on: Senator Jim Webb has proposed to expand education benefits for the men and women who have served in the armed forces since Sept. 11, 2001 with a new GI Bill.
The Bill is bipartisan with Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska (one of my personal favorite elected officials) and John Warner of Virginia, and Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, all of which have served in combat in our armed forces. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is an ardent sponsor.
But who isn’t? Senator John McCain. And, who else isn’t? The Bush Administration.
President Election 2008: Clinton, Obama keep up federal tax on gasoline. Editing by David F. Yu
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[...] JR wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHillary Clinton and Barack Obama are continuing to spar over Clinton’s proposal to suspend the federal tax on gasoline, as the candidates close in on Tuesday’s primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. … [...]
[...] Election 2008: Clinton, Obama keep up federal tax on … JR wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHillary Clinton and Barack Obama are [...]