Obama Takes Heat for Opposing Gas Tax Holiday
Barack Obama and his wife Michelle talk with Amtrak machinist Mike Fischer at his home in Beach Grove, Ind., Wednesday. (AP Photo)
Barack Obama, on the stump and over the airwaves Wednesday, stood by his opposition to a proposed gas tax holiday, decrying it as a quick-fix campaign gimmick as Hillary Clinton and John McCain continued to hammer him for not getting on board.
Clinton and McCain have tag-teamed Obama on the issue, arguing he is hurting ordinary Americans by refusing to support a suspension of the 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal gas tax for three months over the summer.
Obama said in Indianapolis, Ind., that he was attuned to concerns about rising gas prices but doesn’t think the tax holiday is a real solution.
“Senator Clinton is following Senator McCain’s lead. I mean, McCain was the first one to come out with this and Senator Clinton said ‘me too,’” Obama said. “I know it polls well, but here’s the truth: It would save the average family 30 bucks over the course of three months - $28 or more precisely 30 cents a day - which is less than (a) cup of coffee at the 7-Eleven. Thirty cents a day, that’s their big solution. …
“It’s not a real solution, what it is is a gimmick to get you through the election. That’s what it is, so I said, no, I don’t think that’s a realistic idea,” he said.
He complained that such a tax cut would drain money from highway funds and said the government instead should pass a middle class tax cut, to help with expenses ranging from gas to groceries, and roll back some of the Bush tax cuts to do so.
Obama also launched a new ad in Indiana and North Carolina, which vote May 6, saying the plan is “not going to bring down gas prices long-term.”
“That’s typical of how Washington works,” he says of the plan. “There’s a problem. Everybody’s upset about gas prices. Let’s find some short-term quick fix that we can say we did something even though … we’re not really doing anything.”
The ad was in response to a new Clinton spot in Indiana accusing of Obama of refusing to help working families.
“Now, gas prices are skyrocketing … Hillary’s plan: Use the windfall profits of the oil companies to pay to suspend the gas tax this summer. Barack Obama says no, again,” the narrator in the ad says. “People are hurting. It’s time for a president who’s ready to take action now.”
Clinton tried to illustrate her point about fuel prices by kicking off her day Wednesday at a gas station in South Bend, Ind. She and her Secret Service motorcade of six Suburbans and two squad cars pulled up, and the half-tank of gas for the truck she was riding in came to $63.67. She looked at the total and shook her head.
McCain also fired back against Obama in Allentown, Pa., saying he realizes the gas tax plan is not a “panacea” but that it would still help those struggling with fuel costs.
“I noticed again that Senator Obama refuses to endorse a gas tax holiday for Americans,” he said. “But it’s a nice little break for Americans, particularly lower income Americans who generally speaking drive farther and drive older cars, which then increases their cost at the gas pump.”
Spokesman Tucker Bounds issued a statement saying, “Senator Obama has no plan for hard-working Americans that are struggling with gas prices, and it proves he doesn’t understand how badly families and small businesses are hurting. Barack Obama used to support a gas tax holiday when fuel was much cheaper, so why is he refusing to give working families a break when prices are approaching $4 dollars a gallon?”
Obama voted three times for a tax holiday when he was in the Illinois legislature. Legislators were responding in 2000 to gas reaching $2 a gallon in the Chicago area.
The version that ended up becoming law required a six-month suspension of the state’s share of the sales tax on gasoline, a 5 percent tax paid directly by consumers rather than gas stations. It also required gas stations to post signs on their pumps saying that the Illinois General Assembly had lowered taxes and the price should reflect that cut.
The impact of the tax holiday was never clear. Many lawmakers said their constituents didn’t seem to have benefited, and they also worried the tax break was pushing the state budget out of balance.
Obama’s presidential campaign claims the lessons of that Illinois tax holiday influenced his decision to oppose a national tax holiday.
FOX News’ Mosheh Oinounou, Aaron Bruns and Bonney Kapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As an Englishman, this may not mean anything to me personally, but I think that having the guts to oppose a fuel tax holiday is a good thing.
In the U.K. petrol prices have rocketed in the last year or so. I see this as a real pain, and can understand people’s frustration, however, if it means people are a little more conservative with their fuel, choose a more economic car, and possibly see the benefits of a general tax cut as a consequence, then good job.
The tax rollback will save the average driver $28 but it will cost the dept of trans, which takes care of our roads etc, 20 million. How is this a good idea? It took guts for Obama to stand up & be against this. That’s what we need, good judgment from our president, something we have not had for the last 8 years!