A summer “gas tax” holiday? Oh my freaking Ceiling Cat! What is that going to help? Other than politicians pretending they are doing something to help you, that is.
Okay, let’s whip out the calculator. Remember math class? One plus one equals two? Vague memory?
Average gas tank is 13 gallons.
Gas tax is 0.184 cents.
13 times 0.184 = 2.40 (rounded up) savings per fill up.
Let’s say you fill up once a week. Average four weeks in a month.
4 x 2.40 = 9.60 savings per month.
Three month “holiday”.
3 x 9.60 = 28.70
Total savings over the entire summer – about thirty bucks.
Total loss of revenue for federal highway construction = 10 BILLION dollars.
Let’s just forget about the collapsing bridges and other crumbling interstate roads, we can fix that later. Just like we’ll fix the dependence upon foreign oil problem later.
Just toss us some peanuts and we’ll shut up like the good little monkeys that we are.
Was it last year or the year before when gas prices were soaring just over $2.50 a gallon that Bushie suggested they give us all a hundred bucks to pacify us and create the illusion that something was being done about the energy crisis?
Well, at least McCain is being all reasonable about it. Says sure it won’t help, but you little peons out there maybe can buy a “better meal” or “something for their kids”. And Clinton is all jumping on the meaningless gesture bandwagon.
At least Obama has the guts to say this is all showboating. At least he has the guts to say that we need real solutions, not party tricks and distractions. He, at least, thinks the American public isn't stupid.
To suggest that $30 bucks over a summer is going to help the poor and middle class is out of touch bullshit. It’s insulting to the public that they are supposed to serve. We need real, long term solutions, not condescending ‘here, go buy a cheeseburger and a doll for the kids’ hand outs.
How about take away the billions in subsidies that the oil companies get and give it to companies trying to find alternatives to crude oil? How about that?
How about we get fricking real? How about we demand the same from our politicians?
How about an apology from McCain and Clinton for the slap in the face insult of suggesting that thirty dollars is going to help us? Neither of them has a clue as to what the average American is going through.
Thor sez: No Jantrums on MY day!
10 comments:
Thank you for takin' this issue str8 on Sista. $30 bucks maybe gets 2 bags of groceries - one meal out - 3/4 tank of gas?
Grampy McCain & Shrillary do not have a clue what we are facing. They've been in DC for too long. Obama has the closest understanding of what American's are facing.
I'm not trying to pick a fight here, but what has Obama offered as a solution? Saying that McCain and Hillary don't have the answer doesn't qualify as a right answer, it just points out the wrong-headedness of McCain and Hillary pandering.
And the dirty little secret is that if you take the taxes out of the price of gas, it will still probably go up to the same price it was with the tax, because demand is dependent on price level. So removing the tax won't help anybody it intends to, and might even help the oil companies increase their profits. (I know, the horror).
Putting food into our gas tanks isn't helping, either.
The short-term solution is more oil, but all of the available oil is held under lock and key by a Congress that finds it more important to pander to environmental hysteria than it does to the pocketbooks of their constituents.
And the long-term solution, the one the Democrats actually have right, is better fuel standards and using less oil per capita. But that goes against what the American consumer wants to buy, at least for now. And now, used SUVs are cheaper, so it's easier to park a status symbol in the driveway
Uncle Z - thanks.
Chip - it is a complex problem with no easy, quick fix. And I think that is the frustration that I was trying to voice: that politicians are down to throwing "feel-good" measures at us and expect that the American public is stupid enough to be pacified by a few pennies tossed at them.
Obama has in his platform called for increased fuel efficiency laws and, oh hell, I just woke up after a 12 hour night shift so pardon my woozy brain, but I know he wants to increase incentives to companies who are developing technologies not only for alternative fuels, but other types of energy saving technology. I think and don't hold me on it, he proposes to pay for it out of the incentives that we are already paying to oil companies.
Now sit down Chip, but I agree with you on corn ethanol, the farm lobbies are pushing for it because it makes money for farmers and to heck with the cost (both monetarily, environmentaly and on food availability). We should be looking into Brazil's use of sugar cane. They get something like 97% of their ethanol from sugar cane. It is cheaper to produce ethanol from it and there is a greater yeild of ethanol produced per gallon of gasoline used in production. We could revitalize the economies of the Southern gulf states, of Hawaii, of Haiti and other dirt poor Caribbean countries. And using sugar cane wouldn't have such an impact on food prices.
And we can't forget that we already have the technology for electric cars. We just need the investment in how to cleanly provide more electricity to "fuel" them.
Sugar cane ethanol (and don't you just wonder if the exhaust would smell like rum?) could be used as a transition fuel as we move from ethanol powered vehicles to electric powered vehicles as we know not everyone can just run right out and buy an electric car, even if they become widely available.
Oil needs to be abandoned. American needs to develop something that will have the rest of the world knocking on our doors. We need to financially cripple terrorists organizations and states. That is the most effective weapon we have.
Lucky for me I took horseback riding lessons all those summers back in Bible camp.
I don't know that we can abandon oil. The problem is where and who we get it from, and the fact that we have plenty right here at home that we refuse to drill for. It isn't that our not buying oil keeps it from being used, it just changes who uses the available oil. And for what it's worth, I think that we in America use it much more efficiently than India or China, and much cleaner to boot.
I disagree that using sugar wouldn't affect food prices. Americans consume lots of sugar. We get lots of it from corn, because we have protectionist tariffs on sugar imports that make sugar too expensive. And we propped up corn because sugar was so expensive. And now everybody is growing corn because suddenly demand is high for ethanol production. And the problem is that there is no quick way to recover from it. Farmers are getting paid, which is good, but on the back of the American taxpayer. And the farmers didn't do anything wrong, the politicians did by not setting caps on subsidy payments based on production or price increases. Funny how politicians caused this mess, and now they demagogue and point fingers at each other. Because that's easier than actually fixing the problem...
Perhaps expensive sugary treats would be good for America, ya know?
no arguments there...
The simplest of solutions: We have water and the technology to produce water. The Middle East does not have a great abundance of H2o. With the global climate changing at it's current rate it may be that we have the more valuable commodity in the end.
Now let's start working on those Wind Fields in Awendaw!
No arguments but one.
Those who throw the peanuts consider us as sheep.
Sheep who will listen and do everything they say because they say it is good for us...then how can it be wrong?
No thanks.
I cannot vote for Ron Paul then I will vote for Obama, there is no way in hell I am voting for Shrillary or McCain.
Nope, uh-uh, this sheep says just say NO!
Rose - Obama says that real change comes from the bottom up, never the top down. We (all Americans) need to start voting against the status quo. From the President to the Federal Senate and House, to the state Senate and House, to our local governments.
There are more poor, working poor, retired poor, disabled on fixed incomes poor and middle class than there are wealthy who have vested interests in maintaining the status quo so they can hold on to their power (and wealth by influencing policy to favor them). We can fight them by opening our eyes to the lies they tell us and using the most powerful weapon we have - the VOTE.
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