• commentary
  • TUESDAY MAY 6 2008 6:00 AM

Meet The Gastards

Submitted by FearTheReaper

Edited by erin_broadley

Tags: McCain, Clinton, Obama, Gas Tax Holiday

Last week, John McCain proposed an idea so incredibly stupid that Hillary Clinton decided to jump on board the next day. McCain and Clinton want to have a “gas tax holiday," which is a retarded way of saying they want to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax and the 24.4-cent diesel tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

They say it would save Americans 10 billion dollars! Wow! That’s awesome. Until you use your brain, do a little math and realize $10 billion divided by America equals around 30 bucks each. Thirty bucks is now also known as a half a tank of gas. But then you lose that 30 bucks in damage done to your car by under funded roads.

Barack Obama is opposed to the gastard holiday – mostly because he’s not a pandering moron. That means Hillary gets to call him an elitist and say he’s out of touch with the average American. Just so we understand this situation, a lady who is worth $134 million dollars is saying that a guy worth $4 million is out of touch because he doesn’t want to give people $30 for an entire summer.



Yummy, yummy rich people. What a tool she is. Never mind that she was against a gas tax holiday in 2000.


And one of my fundamental disagreements during this campaign with my opponent was when he called for the repeal of the gas tax. Now, the gas tax is one of those few taxes that New York actually gets more money from Washington than we send. And we are totally reliant on it to do things like finishing I-86 in the Southern Tier, or the fast- ferry harbor works up in Rochester, as well as the work we need to do here in the city.


And that guy named Bill Clinton used to be against this idea.


But the problem I have with it, apart from what it might do to the Highway Trust Fund and the spending obligations that have already been incurred by the acts of Congress, the budgets, is that I’m not sure that the savings would be passed along to the consumers in addition to that. So I think there are a lot of questions about it.


Why didn’t Bill think the savings would be passed on to customers? Two reasons: First, gas companies are evil and they will just up the prices. Second, when you eliminate the gas tax, demand goes up, and then the price will go back up to what it was before the tax. It’s called economics. But, Hillary doesn’t want economics to get in the way.


We have to get out of the mindset where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans. I’m not going to put my lot in with economists because I know if we did it right ... we would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively.


Oh, Christ, someone shoot me in the face. Please fucking kill me. I can’t take how stupid these people are.

Hillary is, of course, attempting to use it as a wedge issue in ads.



You go girl! Best way to win the Democratic nomination is to become a Republican!

The McCaintards are also taking swipes at Obama for wanting an economically sound policy.


“It’s clear Barack Obama’s not strong enough to provide immediate relief at the pump, and it shows he doesn’t understand our economy or have the ability to deliver for hard-working Americans,” said Tucker Bounds, a McCain aide. “Senator Obama’s arguments against John McCain’s gas tax holiday are complete fiction, and the reality is that he used to support a gas tax holiday before he was running for president.”


Right. Obama did support a gas tax holiday. That’s why he’s against it now, you fucking dipshit. God, why can’t I shit in the mouths of guys like this? Just once, I want to crouch over one of these guy’s faces and crap in their dumb hole. Amen.

Back in 2000, when prices were going apeshit and hitting $2 a gallon, Illinois politicians decided to give people a break. Obama and other lawmakers voted for a six-month holiday from the state’s 5-cent gas tax. The state lost $175 million in revenue, while the actual savings was only 3 cents per gallon because oil companies just upped prices.


"It turned out to have a pretty small effect," said Joseph Doyle, an assistant economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Consumers were slightly better off, but the benefits were spread very thinly, and the government was a lot worse off."


So, the McCain campaign is calling Obama a flip-flopper because he had the audacity to make a mistake and LEARN from it. Good stuff. McCain and Clinton are the worst kind of politicians in this instance. They are panderers attempting to take advantage of Americans who are having a hard time. They are playing to the emotions and vulnerabilities of people who are having major economic difficulties – which makes McCain and Clinton scum.

Nearly every economist agrees that the gas tax holiday would be a total disaster. Gas prices would simply adjust back up to where they were before the tax break. And it would have a profound negative effect on our roads and highways.


"This proposal would have devastating impacts upon the federal-aid highway and transit programs, sharply reducing funding available to states and jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide. Such a move would be short-sighted and damaging to our nation's economy, while providing little relief to America's drivers."


Oh, hey, people work on roads and highways? You mean that $10 billion in tax revenue that goes to improve roads leads to jobs? Holy shit! Who would have thunk?

But I'm coming from a different place. I believe gas should be expensive. I think Detroit needs to build some decent cars that get over 5 miles per gallon. Right now American car makers are living in a fantasy land, a world that ceased to exist years ago. I think we need to drive less and think of alternative ways to get around. We need to invest in the energy-efficient and climate-friendly transportation alternatives. We are addicted to artificially cheap fuel and the best solution is to change how we operate.

A true leader would stand up and say, “America, you need to only drive out of necessity for one week. Those that can take the bus or a train, will. Those who can work from home, will. Those who can ride a bike, will. Those who can walk, will walk. Let's take a holiday from gas. Only by cutting our consumption will we lower prices.”

But that would take a leader, not a pandering fuck monkey.

  • PERMALINK
  • PRINT
  • Digg This
  • Email To A Friend
 

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

 ... 7

Next

Comments
Colinism

Colinism

Atlanta, GA
July 2005

MAY 06, 2008 09:31 AM

Coyotemike

Coyotemike

USA
May 2006

MAY 06, 2008 09:39 AM

Colinism said:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080506/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices;_ylt=ArL_bjVCApt.3um0Ax0a2uSs0NUE

Get ready for 8 dollars a gallon by winter.



Tried reading the article, got a headache from the double-talk.

One analyst says we may have $200/barrel oil in 2 years, another says we may have $40/barrel in the same amount of time. Why? No fucking idea, they're just making guesses.

_kungfoo_

_kungfoo_

Los Angeles, CA
April 2005

MAY 06, 2008 09:44 AM

Since they're going to pander anyways... I suggest we demand free cake from the campaigns.

Hunkpapa

Hunkpapa

United Kingdom
June 2004

MAY 06, 2008 09:49 AM

Cake is good.

RudieCantFail

RudieCantFail

Baton Rouge, LA
January 2006

MAY 06, 2008 09:50 AM

The cake is a lie.

Adroitbeing

Adroitbeing

I'm lost
September 2003

MAY 06, 2008 09:51 AM

>Bangs head against the wall...again.

80% of the funding for road construction, bridges, ramps, etc comes from two sources; gasoline tax and road use tax. Eliminate the funding and we can all hold our breath while the Objectivists sort out how we remove those dead bodies from the bridge that collapsed. This is a very stupid idea.

Having said that, the transportation budget is the worst of the worst when it comes to pork and could do with some serious trimming. However, such an undertaking will likely have NO effect on consumer gasoline prices. The market has spoken; you want to drive all over hell's half-acre with just one person in each car, and ExxonMobileBPetal have decided they want to capitalize on the profits that remain from a finite resource.

The battle lines are drawn; who will blink first and what will be the cause?

And you can ignore that blinking from Hillary, that is a nervous twitch that pops up when she is looking for a fight; similar to the Bush smirk.

scylis

scylis

USA
November 2004

MAY 06, 2008 09:52 AM

Schteeve said:
Since they're going to pander anyways... I suggest we demand free cake from the campaigns.



YOU! CAKE OR DEATH?!?

Colinism

Colinism

Atlanta, GA
July 2005

MAY 06, 2008 09:54 AM

bean

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

MAY 06, 2008 10:02 AM

alaric said:

FearTheReaper said:

alaric said:

Clinton has said that the gas tax will be paid for by taxing the obscene profits of oil companies. Its an important fact. I have no problem with this. Though she should tax the traders (wall st.) who account for a heavy chunk (as much as 50% by some sources) of the price of oil as well.



Right. Not mentioned. Because oil companies would pass it on to consumers immediately.



Not mentioned because its a very tilted pro obama article. Good to have all the facts before making a conclusion.


No, not mentioned because it is completely beside the point. You can't "pay for" the loss of income that is specifically directed into a fund by increasing general funds, because nobody promoting the gas tax holiday can earmark the money before it comes in. You certainly can't suggest that you can cover a sharp, short-term loss of funds with a long-term solution that should be in place anyhow but which is not even a proposal yet.

I should point out that both obama and clinton want to tax oil companies record profits. So if obama fans are worried about oil companies passing it on to consumers they should be outraged by his tax plan as well.


That's a different matter entirely, we're talking about the gas tax holiday proposal here.

The solution here is a harsh one. New tech (electrics cards, wind mills, solar, etc), less consumption (goodbye SUV and V6/V8s), better urban planning (so long suburb/exburb), more public transportation, more walking, more bicycles.

Another important part of the problem (and congress looked into it) is the role of market speculators traders. They are a big part of the oil pricing problem.


Why are you talking about these things like you can't do them without having a gas tax holiday? They are different issues.

Stiles

Stiles

Oakland, CA
November 2002

MAY 06, 2008 10:19 AM

Thanks you, FTR, Bean, Adroitbeing among others who are demonstrating a good grasp of the issue at hand.

In a best-case scenario, repealing the gas tax would temporarily drop prices less than 5%, a pittance, while destroying roads funding for the entire country at a time when the need is critical. We have been postponing maintenance on our roads for decades and many critical links are past the end of their projected lifespans, or need major work.

That's the reason why anyone with real knowledge of the subject is against this proposal.

emotedcreations

emotedcreations

Germany
July 2006

MAY 06, 2008 10:34 AM

Isn't gas demand pretty inelastic? I don't see how lowering it by a few cents is going to drive up demand. People buy gas when they need it. They're not going to stock it private underground tanks just because the price drops. Anyway, I heard the consumption of gas hasn't decreased since last year when it was a whole dollar cheaper. Any thoughts by anyone that actually understands the economy? (this is not my strong suit).

Also note, this is not an argument for the tax break. I think the loss of funding to road projects versus the savings by individuals far outweighs the issue I raised above. I'm just curious.

Stiles

Stiles

Oakland, CA
November 2002

MAY 06, 2008 10:39 AM

Year over year domestic gasoline demand has dropped by 1%. This is significant because US demand usually has done nothing but rise for a decade or so.

It takes around 10 years for the US fleet to turn over and for people to make meaningful structural changes en masse. Therefore, the easy changes come first... and the demand drops slowly unless there is a crisis, like $7/gal gas or 1973-style shortages.

ericwine

ericwine

Charlotte Hall, MD
January 2007

MAY 06, 2008 11:34 AM

McCain's pandering to the right wing of his party that thinks any tax cut is good regardless of its effect on the economy (the same people who brought us the estate tax elimination which exploded the deficit without adding any economic stimulus). I guess Hillary is pandering to people who think they'll get the full tax cut on their gas at the pump... The only way to reduce prices is to increase supply or reduce demand. OPEC won't turn up the spigot, and we're still buying gas. Bush could abandon his stubborn insistence on diverting oil into the strategic petroleum reserve, but that would only lower prices by two or three cents a gallon, at best.
Why is the diesel tax higher than the gasoline tax? Considering that diesel engines get about 30% better fuel economy than gas engines of similar size and power, shouldn't we be encouraging people to buy diesels, while alternative fuel vehicles are still in short supply?

scylis

scylis

USA
November 2004

MAY 06, 2008 11:39 AM

emotedcreations said:
IAlso note, this is not an argument for the tax break. I think the loss of funding to road projects versus the savings by individuals far outweighs the issue I raised above. I'm just curious.



yeah. i'd much rather have a more pothole-free road than $30.

even Stephen Colbert was mocking it. he'd have to run his Hummer 24/7 in order to see any meaningful savings with this tax break.

Stiles

Stiles

Oakland, CA
November 2002

MAY 06, 2008 11:40 AM

Diesel tax is higher because the heavy over-the-road trucks that use the most of it cause the most road damage by an exponential amount.

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

 ... 7

Next

featured interviews