Libertarians for Ron Paul

McCain-Clinton 2008

“John McCain’s idea — now embraced enthusiastically by Hillary Clinton — to temporarily suspend the federal gasoline tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day is rich fodder for energy analysts. Even richer, however, is the somewhat curious response that the proposed “tax holiday” has provoked from political actors and policy pundits of various stripes. A quick tour of the issues in play is instructive.”

“First, if there is any math out there to refute Barack Obama’s claim that the proposed tax holiday would save the average driver a grand sum of $28 — “otherwise known as $9 a month” as he puts it, or the grand sum of one-half of a tank of gas — it has escaped our attention. Of course, even that calculation presupposes that service station owners will pass on the full tax cut to the consumer — which they most definitely would not. How much of that tax cut would reach consumers is unclear. What is clear, however, is that Sen. McCain’s claim that the tax holiday would provide a powerful stimulus to the economy is risible. Sen. Clinton’s claim that the savings represents “real money” to the poor, hard-trodden masses yearning to keep their heads above water is similarly hard to swallow.”

Jerry Taylor and Jagadeesh Gokhale analyse the latest energy proposal from John McCain & Hillary Clinton @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9397