Gas Tax Holiday is the Proverbial Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Unlike President John F. Kennedy, who asked we, the people, 47 years ago, not to ask what our country can do for us, rather, what we can do for our country, politicians today ask and expect very little of the American people and with good reason...they risk losing the American people's vote.

We're quick to blame the politicians for not being honest; yet it is our job to keep them honest. What choice do they have but to pander, as John McCain is doing with this "Gas Tax Holiday" (GTH) b$llsh$t", when they know the majority of American people do not want to be asked to sacrifice anything nor take the time to think about what they're told?

Len Burman, former senior analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, 1989 to 1997 and currently Director of the Tax Policy Center, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute and finally author of "The Labyrinth of Capital Gains Tax Policy: A Guide for the Perplexed calculated, estimating that the average American family drives a car that gets 25 mpg, will drive that car 4,000 miles over the course of the summer, using 160 gallons of gas and then he multiplied the 160 gallons by .18 cents. He concluded the average American family would save a whopping $29 over the summer if the GTH goes into effect...$29!

Mr. Burman believes the amount saved would be much less considering the GTH may encourage people to drive more, thus increasing the demand for gas and causing supply to tighten. Supplies are already tighter in summer because people drive more. It's not Rocket Science, it's Econ 101...the cheaper the gas, the higher the demand, the tighter the supply, will cause prices to go up, not down. Not to mention, the GTH rewards those driving the gas guzzling SUVs, Hummers etc. because they would save the most.

Why doesn’t cutting the gas tax this summer make sense? It’s Econ 101 tax incidence theory: if the supply of a good is more or less unresponsive to the price, the price to consumers will always rise until the quantity demanded falls to match the quantity supplied. Cut taxes, and all that happens is that the pretax price rises by the same amount. The McCain gas tax plan is a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers. -- Paul Krugman

And what about the nation's long-term energy goal? Doesn't the GTH further escalate the already problematic over consumption of limited resources? The 18.4 cent-per-gallon gas tax is the main source of revenue that pays for roads, bridges, and public transit. Suspending the gas tax would siphon off $10 billion from public transit and road and bridge repair, part of the solution to preventing the unnecessary depletion of our resources.

What good does teaching your child how to read in the womb; paying Ivy League prices so your child can attend prestigious pre-schools; insisting your child compete athletically at about the same level University students used to compete in previous generations, etc do when we have pushed the limits of the resources our civilization depend on simply because we over-consume? The rising standards-of-living across the globe - China and India - will only, to put it mildly, add fuel to the fire.

While John McCain continues George W. Bush's subversive tactics and Hilary Clinton follows right along, Barack Obama believes Americans are ready to sacrifice and smart enough to understand that if we continue on the same path that we've followed for the last eight years, the downfall of our nation may result. He trusts that Americans can figure out that the GTH is nothing but a politician's attempt to fleece the American public.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. -- JFK