Callous feds refuse gas tax relief

As gas prices continue rising steadily and consumers are paying more every time they visit the pump, Americans are warming up to the idea of a gas tax holiday. Meanwhile, the typical elites, big government bureaucrats, and leftist pols are lining up to oppose this common sense approach to dealing with the financial pinch we feel when we pull into the gas station.

Gasbuddy.com dutifully reports that America’s average price for a tank of gas currently stands at $3.76 per gallon. Just one year ago that price stood at “only” $3.09 per gallon. Without getting into the argument of what has caused these horrifically high prices or the record profits being reaped by oil companies which hurt American consumers and families, let’s take a close look at why a gas tax holiday should be enacted and who opposes such a reasonable plan.

Proving that even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut, Senator John McCain wants Uncle Sam to temporarily suspend the current 18.4 cents per gallon (cpg) federal gas tax that he levies on every gallon of gasoline we pump. Noticing that she can still capture the Democrat nomination if she plays her cards right in working-class states, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has even jumped on board to support a very similar holiday that would last for the three summer months when gas prices are generally the highest.

Rather than jumping on the bandwagon to support an idea that would benefit the common good, the usual suspects are lining up in opposition. Greg Mankiw, a former George W. Bush administration staffer from the Council of Economic Advisors actually says that “gasoline taxes should be higher than they are, not lower.”

Could it be that the Bush Administration’s employment of intellectual giants like Mr. Mankiw is part of the reason why we are dealing with $58.2 billion trade deficit, a $9.3 trillion national debt, and a government that has watched as 3.5 million manufacturing jobs have departed since January 2001?

Senator Barack Obama, looking to escape from the shadows of the unyielding Reverend Wright story has jumped into the fray, opposing a federal gas tax holiday. Obama is instead advocating a much more general concept of how to help American motorists: use less gas. So much for feeling our financial pain like another upstart Democrat candidate did successfully in 1992.

Not to be outdone in the department of zany, tax-hiking proposals, Michigan congressman John Dingell is advocating a 50-cent federal tax on every gallon of gasoline. His goal is to discourage the American people from driving their cars. Perhaps he is also working on an earmark appropriating an infinite number of dollars and scientists to study Star Trek’s teleporter technology.

George Wallace used to reference “those pointy headed bureaucrats” in Washington who “can’t even park their bicycles straight.” Even though Governor Wallace is long gone, those mind-numbingly ineffective folks in central planning are still with us. In fact, a highly empathetic commission called the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission in January released a series of recommendations advocating a 40 cpg increase in the federal gas tax. Their plan would raise the current 18.4 cpg tax by five to eight cents annually.

In one corner stand a slew of congressional insiders, a member of the faulty Bush economic team, a presidential candidate struggling to capture his party’s nod, and a gaggle of pointy headed bureaucrats.

In the other corner of the ring stands Joe Sixpack, who just arrived home from a rough day at work. He just paid $3.85 per gallon (Los Angeles average in late April) to fill up his tank, has noticed that food prices have climbed five percent from last year (Time projects that hamburger meat is going to rise by 20 percent this summer, just in time for the family cookout), and he read in the morning paper that the unemployment rate has jumped to 5.1 percent. His friend who reads The Economist told him about how America lost 98,000 jobs in March 2008 alone.

Despite the economic worries gripping Joe and Jane Sixpack right now, the most basic thing the federal government can do is to temporarily relieve the people of the 18.4 cpg federal gasoline tax. But why stop there? Gaspricewatch.com provides a handy chart that shows how much additional tax money you fork over each time you go to the pump in your state of residence.

For instance, Pennsylvania motorists are paying 31.1 cpg on top of the 18 cpg federal tax. For each gallon of gasoline my grandmother puts into her car in North Huntingdon, she pays a whopping 49.1 cpg just to cover the taxes! The gas prices there hit $3.75 per gallon on May 13. If you suspend the state and federal gasoline taxes, she would see a drop to $3.26 per gallon.

The federal government must enact the gas tax holiday for the summer months. However, their action alone is not enough. State governments ought to have the political courage to pass gas tax holidays at the state level as well. Arkansas, for example, should be willing to do without its 21.5 cpg at the pump so citizens can have some temporary relief.

Insider politicians and Washington elitists will say that a holiday will starve funds needed for infrastructure, transportation, road repairs, and other projects. Wrong they are. Instead, a $3 trillion war in Iraq, $338.3 billion annually to pay for costs associated with illegal immigration, and $17.2 billion in Congressional pork barrel projects in FY 2008 alone have significantly diminished the funds available to pay for infrastructure, roads, bridges, and repairs.

Rather than digging deeper into our wallets for the summer months and soaking us for every tax dollar they can get at the pump, perhaps its time that Washington bureaucrats finally learned how to park their bicycles straight.

Nathan R. Shrader can be reached at nathanrshrader@yahoo.com. This article was originally printed in the McKeesport (PA) Daily News on Thursday, May 8, 2008. Gas price figures have been adjusted to reflect this week’s costs.

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader. If you don't have a feed reader, you can always have these articles delivered to your email inbox every day. Click here to sign up.