My gas tax ‘holiday’ savings: $39.21
May 1, 2008 at 3:41 pm by Wayne Garcia
Jabberwonk has weighed in with a great tool as we debate the usefulness of a summertime gas tax holiday: the Gas Tax Holiday Calculator.
By plugging in how much I drive a week, I find that the plan being supported by both John McCain and Hillary Clinton (but not Barack Obama) would save me a measly $39.21 in my Dodge pickup. That includes a 1,600-mile college campus trek over the summer I plan with my teenager.
$39.21. Just about enough for one full loaf of bread.
Doesn’t hardly seem enough money to make it worth doing, given the resulting transportation projects that those dollars would pay for instead.
How much would you save, and is it worth it? Or should we maybe, oh, get a real viable energy policy in the U.S.
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May 1st, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I came out at $26.64. Talk about a “let them eat cake” proposal.
Of course, if I point out how big of a dick would be broken off in the ass of the working man with this proposal, I would only be revealing myself as a giant elitist, right?
May 1st, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Mojo blog weighs in on the dispute between HRC and Obama at http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/05/8127_obama_and_clint_3.html
May 1st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Forget elitist… by reaching to tag a non-Presidential candidate issue (summer proposal) as a McCain/Clinton Gas Tax Holiday - did Obama actually get trapped into accidentally swiftboating himself as the ever-dreaded “Tax and Spend Liberal” candidate?
May 1st, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Mr. X, I read your comment three times and I don’t follow. How does pointing out that the gas tax holiday is an irresponsible election-year pander translate into Obama being a “Tax and Spend Liberal”?
God, “tax and spend liberal.” Really? What is this, 1988?
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:32 am
Mr X — no more so than simply being a Democrat opens him up to this tag. the problem with the gas tax holiday is that it isn’t enough, and you don’t get credit with voters if your tax break is insubstantial, e.g. Florida’s lame-ass property tax reform earlier this year. Crist’s approval ratings have plummeted since, added to by economic woes and an inability to get the Legislature to do anything substantive