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Did Obama really make fun of the Temporary Gas Tax Repeal???Barack Obama has attempted to ridicule the temporary gas tax repeal even as he outspends Hillary Clinton in Indiana and North Carolina by 3-1. Does anybody see the hypocrisy in outspending Hillary Clinton by 3-1 in the state of Indiana and North Carolina while ridiculing Hillary Clinton for trying to save citizens of these two states a morsel of their own money?
I just don't think Mr. Obama understands just how elitist he can be at times. "You can't have your miniscule temporary gas tax repeal, but I get to outspend my opponent 3-1."
Is it wise for Barack Obama to ridicule Hillary Clinton and the citizens of Indiana and North Carolina for favoring the saving of a small amount of gas tax money for a temporary period of time even as Big Bucks Obama outspends Hillary Clinton 3-1 in both Indiana and North Carolina? I personally find it unnacceptable that for Obama to outspend Hillary Clinton by 3-1 in Indiana and North Carolina to influence voters, yet look down on a temporary gas tax repeal that lets these same voters keep a portion of their own gas tax money.
I believe it is possible that when the government gets a taste of it's own ineffectual medicine, they may actually do something about it. Repealing the gas tax for a short time reminds the government that they have failed on several fronts when it comes to our addiction to oil. It's called backlash, and the economists forgot to add it into their equations when trying to judge Hillary Clinton's proposal.
8 comments:
I don't know how you can equate these two topics. Campaign spending has nothing to do with public policy, nor does it go into Obama's pocket.
As it happens, we already had a gas tax holiday here in Illinois which Mr Obama supported at the time. It didn't work at all, because retailers (whose margins on a gallon of gas are incredibly slim) just kept the prices the same and reaped the benefits themselves.
Obama has learned from that mistake, something Clinton can never do.
Next, Clinton says she'll pay for this from a windfall profits tax on the oil companies. But there's no way this President signs such legislation, and she's already promised to use that tax in her administration for something else.
So Clinton LIES again.
Finally, the average amount saved per month by this temporary measure would be $30, less than the cost of a cup of coffee per day.
People who vote for Hillary on the basis of this idiotic policy are as dumb as though who voted for Bush becuase of the big old tax rebate he was gonna give them.
~Z~
Which is really, really dumb.
I'm equating a candidate comfortably outspending his opponent by 3-1 while that same candidate ridicules any effort made to lower gas prices for a short while for the consumer.
As for the possibility of the gas tax repeal not working, a rebate would probably satisfy the issues you bring up. Since Barack has already experienced the first attempt at trying to save the consumer money at the pump and it not working, he was in a better position to actually modify the idea as I have done to make it work.
Yet I don't even agree that Hillary's idea wouldn't work, the additional margin on gas prices would inevitably mean that some gas stations would lower their prices to get an edge over their competition. Local radio stations would probably offer a free public service announcements of which gas stations have the lowest price. As long as people don't drive across town to save some money, the radio stations become the difference makers.
But as long as Obama can keep outspending his opponent 3-1, life is good. "Off with their heads" and "let em eat cake" become the slogans of the day.
Long term, I agree that the repeal gas tax idea is not the right solution, but NOBODY has suggested this be a long term idea.
i hear those same arguements coming from the clinton campaign supporters rather than from the obama supporters. ever since the start of this long arduous primary season, the vibe that i have always gotten from barack obama is that he figures that he won't change the culture in washington by himself. he is asking that those who are with him ask the same of their local representation. when i hear him say "we", i literally think that he actually means "we" as in you, me, the guy down the street, everyday people.
the vibe that i get from the clinton campaign is that its her turn. she has the name association, she has the money, she has had more exposure to what life in the white house is, therefore the people should just usher her into the oval office. when i hear her say "we" i see her meaning the royal "we", meaning me. she really has had to ramp up the rhetoric to get people back to her side since the failure of clinching inevitability on super tuesday and that has really put the clamps on her.
the math is simply not in her favor.
pandering to the people for votes screams of insincerity to me, especially when its not going to do much for people. and clinton has to know that. when you are being outspent 3 to 1 saying anything and everything to garner a few votes that won't change much in the overall picture is not surprising, but to call out obama for making fun of this i think is just sour grapes on your part. clinton is the one who went to a private female school, an ivy league school, lived very well in illinois, but obama is the elitist. perhaps if more outlets would report clinton's background more frequently we can stop with this elitism arguement nonsense. i too would like to hear obama's expanded thoughts on issues that really matter, but because clinton is being selfish and poses to do some real long term damage to the democratic party, obama is essentially hamstrung into campaigning in primary mode than shifting to general election mode.
just so everyone knows, i did not decide to switch to obama until edwards dropped. i was for kucinich and then edwards after dennis dropped out. i also never got on the "hillary must go" bandwagon until it became a statistical impossibility for her to catch him in the remaining primaries. the process needs to END quickly, not be prolonged.
so what if people are disenfranchised because they played no major part in deciding their candidate. how many people were disenfranchised in the republican race this year when john mccain recieved enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee? how many people canNOT vote in the upcoming primaries because their state's primaries are closed (such as me in my state)? how many people were disenfranchised because the people in michigan and florida knew their primaries did not count and did not vote who now because of clinton's ramroding to not represent the people, but to get those state's superdelegates, now have no voice in their primary? clinton claiming disenfranchisement is also pandering, pandering to the poor, uneducated (part of her base) and to black people (obama's base) because of 2000 and 2004. and this also hurts party unity. it will be very hard to get all in the party to unite if it goes to denver, and anything that could be done to speed up the end of this race is a good thing.
i want to give the democrats my vote. people like clinton who are trying to turn the party into republican lite through their tactics and policies do your party more harm than good.
You may be judging my position from this one topic. If you read just a few more of my topics you will see the real issue for me is how the Caucus states were unfairly used to create a false sense of popularity for Obama.
And of course, Florida is HIllary's Illinois.
A "gas tax holiday" would:
1. Increase demand for a limited resource which we acquire from hostile governments, increasing our reliance on foreign sources of energy
2. Take money away from infrastructure projects at a time when we desperately need to upgrade our roads and bridges (remember Minnesota?)
3. Not make much of a difference because some states tie their state gas tax to the federal tax - if the feds lower the rate, the states increase the rate, leaving you in the same position
4. Save families somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 in taxes, which would be offset by the increase in oil prices due to the increase in demand since the government would be in effect subsidizing gasoline
5. If the "windfall" tax happened, oil prices and gasoline prices would increase since all businesses do is pass taxes onto consumers. So if prices drop $.18 (federal tax), but demand increases and the price of oil goes up another 5%, you can expect an increase in gasoline prices around $.12-.15, which almost negates the "benefit" of the gas tax holiday.
So no thank you, I will pay my $30 in gas taxes if that means I will not contribute to an increase in oil prices and oil dependency.
Tim, it is only for a couple of months. Helps out the truckers big time. lol, maybe it should have been a truckers gas tax holiday.
You must have failed economics in whatever lackluster college you graduated from. Repealing the gas tax will increase demand for gas. That is the WORST possible thing. Why? Because prices are just going to go up to meet demand. Then, by the time you put the tax back on, demand (and price) will have risen more then it would have had you just left it alone. Put it this way. By the end of the summer you may have saved 70$ because they took off the tax, but by December you will have payed 100$ more then you would have had you left it alone. So, would you rather have 70$ in September and negative 30$ in December or just be plain at 0$ how you would have been all along.
That is Obama's argument and the argument of any educated person. Hillary is pandering to the uneducated to get their votes even when she knows its going to be worse off for them.
What you are not taking into account is how slapping the government a bit with the gas tax repeal reminds them that they need to do more to help the situation.
It's the status quo that George Bush has enforced for the past 8 years that we need to shaken away from as soon as possible. The TEMPORARY gas tax does this.
I would be for a modified version in which truckers get the repeal AND get huge incentives to invest in newer trucks that presumeably get better gas mileage.
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