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  • TUESDAY MAY 6 2008 6:00 AM

Meet The Gastards

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.

 

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Comments
Mark_plus_Beer

Mark_plus_Beer

United Kingdom
August 2005

MAY 06, 2008 11:45 AM

RudieCantFail said:
The cake is a lie.



not even a muffin then ?

Adroitbeing

Adroitbeing

I'm lost
September 2003

MAY 06, 2008 11:51 AM

emotedcreations

emotedcreations

Germany
July 2006

MAY 06, 2008 12:07 PM

/FLAG

RudieCantFail

RudieCantFail

I'm lost
January 2006

MAY 06, 2008 12:08 PM

Mark_plus_Beer said:

RudieCantFail said:
The cake is a lie.



not even a muffin then ?



UpTight

UpTight

I'm lost
December 2003

MAY 06, 2008 12:09 PM

coyotemike said:

Hunkpapa said:

coyotemike said:

UpTight said:
People keep talking about the obscene profits of oil companies, but not of the obscene amount of money taken by government in taxes (a large chunk of which is given away as pork).



Any taxes they pay in (which is less than the amount paid by non-oil companies) is easily made back by government subsidies.

Source



Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought UpTight was referring to the tax paid by the consumer when they buy the petrol, rather than any corporation or business tax paid by the oil companies. Over here, about 60% of the price of petrol at the pump is fuel tax and VAT.

This whole tax holiday idea does seem ridiculous and desperate.



Could be. I thought he was making an excuse for high gas prices.



I was talking about all personal taxes. Everything the government manges to squeeze out of our pockets to use on needless layers of bureaucracy, over-management, silly schemes and - in the case of the US - local grants used by politicians to make themselves look like jolly nice people.

If governments were more efficient and streamlined and less greedy, they could cut fuel tax.

The other point I made was about the law of supply and demand. The best longterm way for America to ensure prices are reasonable, is to ensure that supply is kept plentiful. There's enough oil for generations of Americans sitting under Alaska simply because of whining environmentalists.

Mexico gets to drill in the Gulf, but America can't.

High tax and restricted supply are the reasons why fuel prices are high. Blame the profits made by the oil companies, if you want - but remember - that money just goes back into the economy. the more successful oil companies are the more people they employ, the more wages they pay and the more taxes are raised.

CoyoteMike

CoyoteMike

Iowa City, IA
May 2006

MAY 06, 2008 12:17 PM

UpTight said:

coyotemike said:

Hunkpapa said:

coyotemike said:

UpTight said:
People keep talking about the obscene profits of oil companies, but not of the obscene amount of money taken by government in taxes (a large chunk of which is given away as pork).



Any taxes they pay in (which is less than the amount paid by non-oil companies) is easily made back by government subsidies.

Source



Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought UpTight was referring to the tax paid by the consumer when they buy the petrol, rather than any corporation or business tax paid by the oil companies. Over here, about 60% of the price of petrol at the pump is fuel tax and VAT.

This whole tax holiday idea does seem ridiculous and desperate.



Could be. I thought he was making an excuse for high gas prices.



I was talking about all personal taxes. Everything the government manges to squeeze out of our pockets to use on needless layers of bureaucracy, over-management, silly schemes and - in the case of the US - local grants used by politicians to make themselves look like jolly nice people.

If governments were more efficient and streamlined and less greedy, they could cut fuel tax.

The other point I made was about the law of supply and demand. The best longterm way for America to ensure prices are reasonable, is to ensure that supply is kept plentiful. There's enough oil for generations of Americans sitting under Alaska simply because of whining environmentalists.

Mexico gets to drill in the Gulf, but America can't.

High tax and restricted supply are the reasons why fuel prices are high. Blame the profits made by the oil companies, if you want - but remember - that money just goes back into the economy. the more successful oil companies are the more people they employ, the more wages they pay and the more taxes are raised.



How can the oil companies be employing more people when they aren't building new refineries or upping production?

FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

MAY 06, 2008 12:27 PM

UpTight said:
There's enough oil for generations of Americans sitting under Alaska simply because of whining environmentalists.



There's enough gas for ONE YEAR under Alaska. Feel free to gather easy to find knowledge before stumbling in drunk with your retarded ideology.

FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

MAY 06, 2008 12:28 PM

coyotemike said:

How can the oil companies be employing more people when they aren't building new refineries or upping production?



It's a knee jerk reaction. No thinking behind it.

Adroitbeing

Adroitbeing

I'm lost
September 2003

MAY 06, 2008 12:36 PM

I dearly love how the site often goes to sleep and fails to post - like some nag ready for the glue factory. Must be a problem with IE.

This is what I tried to say earlier:

This is an interesting point, and I'm not sure how to get at the number I seek, but I am wondering how the "war effort" has influenced petroleum use by the US. I don't claim to have any real insight into the effect, but jets, tanks, and humvees on active patrol probably consume a few more gallons than during similar periods of no real conflict and simple training exercises.

OhSoOrdinary

OhSoOrdinary

New York, NY
July 2006

MAY 06, 2008 12:40 PM

Either way, none of them will be president this summer and gas should correct itself a good deal before they could be. Still, Obama gets kudos for not being a douchebag.

FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

MAY 06, 2008 12:40 PM

Adroitbeing said:

This is an interesting point, and I'm not sure how to get at the number I seek, but I am wondering how the "war effort" has influenced petroleum use by the US. I don't claim to have any real insight into the effect, but jets, tanks, and humvees on active patrol probably consume a few more gallons than during similar periods of no real conflict and simple training exercises.



And Iraqi production has been greatly reduced by the war.

Adroitbeing

Adroitbeing

I'm lost
September 2003

MAY 06, 2008 12:41 PM

UpTight said:
There's enough oil for generations of Americans sitting under Alaska simply because of whining environmentalists.



There's enough empty space between some people's ears that any possible presence of logic seems able to remain out of sight.

defaultx

defaultx

I'm lost
February 2006

MAY 06, 2008 01:35 PM

Alaska's Gull Island Oil Fields Could Power U.S. for 200 Years.

Stiles

Stiles

Philadelphia, PA
November 2002

MAY 06, 2008 01:52 PM

defaultx said:
Alaska's Gull Island Oil Fields Could Power U.S. for 200 Years.



Ridiculous. Proof, please.

alaric

alaric

I'm lost
June 2005

MAY 06, 2008 02:01 PM

bean said:
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.
.



Federal, local and state governments levy all kinds of taxes that are in fact earmarked...like um..um the gas tax. Your assertion that the tax on oil companies has to go to a general fund is not necessarily so. This is simply incorrect.

Its true that hillary can't decide that on her own. And its also true that neither hillary nor obama have the power to do most anything they've claimed on their own. According to your logic, they should both just shut up because they're not a supreme dictator. I'd really enjoy this. Both make me want to puke.

And there is quite a bit missing in the obama analysis no? I've seen no analysis that includes the impact of gas prices on holiday/summer recreational travel or the potential impact of gas prices and gas price elasticity upon those summer industries. Its quite possible that the extra 20 cents will do nothing either way but it should at least be entertained. The latest data I've seen by the way indicates US drivers are cutting back so that summer travel is a factor. Estimates I've read suggest Summer travel will be significantly below normal levels. That could be an issue and it could cost the economy a lot more than 10 billion

Does this mean i love the gas tax holiday idea. I doubt it'll make a difference one way or another. But come on try to be a little bit fair.

Yes hillary is pandering and so is Obama when he claims 7000 jobs will be lost in North Carolina. The two are the same thing.



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



If you complain that any tax on oil companies will end up being absorbed by consumers (like that reader did) then its exactly the same thing.




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