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Lots of organizing against the gas tax holiday today, as the sensible urban and environmental types have their say at GasTaxScam.com and the economists -- 221 of them so far, including a couple Nobel laureates -- make their displeasure known at Gas Tax 2008. The economists haven't named their site very effectively, but their letter puts the argument nicely:
Put simply, suspending the federal tax on gasoline this summer is a bad idea and we oppose it.There are several reasons for this opposition:First, research shows that waiving the gas tax would generate major profits for oil companies rather than significantly lowering prices for consumers.Second, it would encourage people to keep buying costly imported oil and do nothing to encourage conservation.Third, a tax holiday would provide very little relief to families feeling squeezed.Fourth, the gas tax suspension would threaten to increase the already record deficit in the coming year and reduce the amount of money going into the highway trust fund that maintains our infrastructure.Signers of this letter are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. This is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of good public policy.It's worth saying that this really isn't a partisan issues, as both Hillary Clinton and John McCain support a gas tax holiday, while Barack Obama opposes one.
