Obama Was For Gas Tax Relief… Before He Was Against It
April 24th, 2008 at 08:24pm Matt Margolis
As I’m sure you are all aware, John McCain has proposed a 3-month gas tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day… and Senator Obama has come out opposing the idea.
But, as the Wall Street Journal reported today, as a state senator in Illinois Obama supported a gas tax holiday.
Sen. Obama, who voted for a temporary gas-tax break when he was a state senator in Illinois, rejected a federal tax holiday as bad fiscal policy. The federal gas tax raises money to repair and expand the highway system.
In Illinois in 2000, Sen. Obama voted for a six-month, five-percentage point break on the state’s 6.25% gas sales tax. The reduction of the tax, which goes into a general revenue fund, passed on a 55-1 vote and included measures designed to ensure that the benefits of the tax break reached consumers. At one point, Sen. Obama jokingly asked on the Senate floor whether it would be possible to install placards on gas-station pumps telling motorists he had helped win temporary price relief.
Now that it’s John McCain making the proposal for temporary relief at the gas pump, Obama has flip-flopped.
The ironic thing about the whole issue of high gas prices is that Democrats and the special interests that support them are the ones to blame. Because of the environmental lobby, we don’t drill for oil in our country. They also oppose building more refineries. The end result: our continued (and not increased) dependence on foreign oil.
But maybe that’s what Barack Obama wants, afterall, he’s gets a lot of money from big oil:
Sen. Barack Obama continued accepting donations from oil company executives and employees last month even as he aired ads in which he stated he took no oil company money, his campaign finance reports show.
Obama has taken at least $263,000 from oil company executives, family members and employees since entering the presidential race last year, including $46,000 last month. At least $140,000 has come in chunks of between $1,000 and $2,300, the maximum permitted under federal law.
Texas oil executive Robert L. Cavnar of Milagro Exploration and his wife, Gracie, have helped the Illinois Democrat raise at least another $50,000 by helping host a fundraiser earlier in the campaign.
Higher prices means more profit for big oil right? If you ask Obama that’s how things are… But when he gets big money from Big Oil, how do you think he cares about how much you’re paying at the pump when they’re pumping up his campaign coffers?
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: More on Obama’s Big Oil connections.
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats
34 Comments
1. Peace Plan | April 24th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
“As I’m sure you are all aware, John McCain has proposed a 3-month gas tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day”
This is typical conservative fodder; a simple Bush like short sighted stupid idea only done for votes. This is no solution. Maybe when the conservatives cross the new bridge in Minneapolis in order to get to their convention they will be reminded of those who lost their lives when the old one fell into the river and take to heart if we want rebuild our collapsing infrastructure the money has to come from somewhere.
2. middlefinger | April 24th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Ouch!
Nice one Peace Plan.
Margolis, you’re an idiot.
Please, rename your candidate “McFlipflop” already.
You don’t want to go there.
3. LiberalNitemare | April 24th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Middlefinger and Peace Plan make fine points.
Gentlemen, you are a credit to your party.
4. Mark Noonan | April 24th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
LiberalNightmare,
They’ve got no answer to Obama’s indefensible actions, so they just try and turn it around on McCain…typical of our rather pathetic liberals…
Obama is such a manifestly unqualified candidate, and they have to know it by now - but our liberals will never admit an error, so they will just brazenly say that the naked emperor continues to be the best dressed man at the party…
5. winnowhead | April 24th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
That’s funny. I thought it was a “conservative” idea to support use-based taxes such as a fuel tax to fund highway infrastructure, instead of pesky librul ideas like the graduated income tax.
I guess that only applies when an election year doesn’t offer prime pandering opportunities.
And it’s the oil industry that’s holding back on refinery expansion. There is no incentive to increase production in peak times when high demand increases profit margins. Over the past 25 years, the oil industry has shuttered hundreds of refineries, reducing the number from 324 to 132 from 1981 to 2005. Yes, environmentalists want to see us move away from oil, but it’s not the EPA that’s caused refining capacity to drop - it is the focus on maximizing profits.
6. js | April 24th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
more like structuring capacity for profit…
7. Obama » Obama Was F&hellip | April 24th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
[...] *Transcendental *Logic wrote an interesting post today on Obama Was For Gas Tax Relief⦠Before He Was Against ItHere’s a quick excerptAs I’m sure you are all aware, John McCain has proposed a 3-month gas tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day… and Senator Obama has come out [...]
8. Tax » Obama Was For&hellip | April 24th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
[...] Matt Margolis wrote an interesting post today on Obama Was For Gas Tax Relief⦠Before He Was Against ItHere’s a quick excerptObama voted for a six-month, five-percentage point break on the state’s 6.25% gas sales tax. The reduction of the tax, which goes into a general revenue fund, passed on a 55-1 vote and included measures designed to ensure that the … [...]
9. Diana Powe | April 24th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
So Senator Obama’s change of heart is flip-flopping but Senator McCain’s multiple flip-flops (say, for instance, on President Bush’s signature tax cuts) are what? Growth in his understanding of the issues, perhaps? Naaah, just pandering, just like the idiotic idea of a fuel tax “holiday”.
Matt’s elegant (and so unexpected) explanation of how high gas prices are (like all of society’s ills, presumably) the fault of Democrats (hey, when the only thing you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail) seems to fail one small test. The price of oil before it arrives at a U.S. refinery has had a slight increase during the Bush Administration from about $25 per barrel to it’s current level of over $110 per barrel. Anyone here believe the demand for oil has increased 440% in the last seven years? If it has, then don’t worry, we can’t possibly drill enough oil anywhere to keep up with the pace.
10. SEW | April 24th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
DP, take your meds. BDS is treatable!
11. js | April 24th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
really DP, the gas didnt really jump that much until the demoncrats got into power in both houses in 06….till then it was pretty well under 2 bucks a gallon…now in 2 years it about doubled….
so much for blamin bush eh? funny how that works….just the truth is all a conservative needs, while liberals jump through so many hoops to miss the simple stuff….
12. James | April 24th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
if the liberals trolling this blog ever contributed something worthwhile to the conservation i’d die of shock.
13. SEW | April 24th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
James, not to worry. It won’t happen. But remember, they have lived through a Fake Scientist, a Fake War Hero, and now a Fake American. Dig deep for compassion.
14. neocon | April 24th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Diana,
High oil prices are a result of an uncertain ME region, supplies of crude and refining capacities. And both parties are too blame. We did not start early enough on developing green energies and we have not managed our domestic supplies and capabilities very well at all.
There is plenty of global crude resources to see us through until greener alternatives will start to carry the load, but we need to help establish a stable ME, and begin drilling domestically. Both solutions which the democrats largely oppose.
You do the math.
15. neocon | April 24th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
that should have read low supplies and limited refining capacities
16. congressive | April 25th, 2008 at 12:08 am
“If the liberals trolling this blog ever contributed something worthwhile to the conservation i’d die of shock.”
If the conservatives trolling this blog ever contributed something worthwhile to the conservation I’d die of shock.
17. freeLib | April 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am
yes - i love the so called ‘flip flop’ charge. If any democrat ever changes their opinion on anything ever then its flip flopping. You see you have to be like Bush, Matt, and Mark and never change your opinion on anything ever regardless of what happens. Way to be complete morons..
18. Kahn | April 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am
The Democrats assured us they had a plan to lower gas prices before the last election. Must be in the same box with the Social Security repair plan and the get out of Iraq plan.
19. Kahn | April 25th, 2008 at 12:34 am
freelib, so what IS Obamas solution to gas prices then?
20. Tractatus | April 25th, 2008 at 12:38 am
ObamaBush is such a manifestlyunqualified candidate, and they have to know it by now - but ourliberalswingnuts will never admit an error, so they will just brazenly say that the naked emperor continues to be the best dressed man at the party…Fixed that for ya, Noonan. Don’t worry–no charge for the editorial services this time around.
So Senator Obama’s change of heart is flip-flopping but Senator McCain’s multiple flip-flops (say, for instance, on President Bush’s signature tax cuts) are what? Growth in his understanding of the issues, perhaps?
I believe the preferred euphemism is “an evolution in viewpoint.” I guess if they really wanted to be sticklers, they’d say it’s an intelligent design in viewpoint, but it’s still a work in progress.
Also, notice how Margolis tries to equate Obama’s 5-percentage-point reduction on state gas taxes with McCain’s outright suspension of all federal gas taxes. Because, you know, they’re totally the same thing (if you really, really need them to be in order to make some ill-informed political point)!
21. Kahn | April 25th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Tractatus - You know Bush isn’t running, right? What an idiot.
He beat Gore AND Kerry, by the way.
22. Danish Artist | April 25th, 2008 at 6:21 am
whiniehead,
they is no incentive for the libs in Congress to do anything about the high price of gasoline as long as Americans buy it they are getting their tax money (the libs steal more money is gasoline taxes that the oil companies earn in gasoline profits).
Of course, they are complaining it is an election year after all. Where is Pelosi’s “COMMON SENSE” solution for high gasoline prices. We are still waiting for her to roll out her plan.
The woman is a twit and people like you and your fellow liberals fall all over themselves to hear her next words of “wisdom”….. lunacy is more like it.
23. Some Assembly Required | April 25th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Please, please, please try and brand Obama a flipflop! Though McCain’s support may increase with the Republican base, the other 80% of the country will run far and fast to Obama. McCain’s tax break is not a bad idea, but after labor day things would just go back to what they were, if they don’t get worse. The push for alternative energy should be at the forefront of any candidates campaign. Money for R&D like Obama proposes. End this war on science that is on going from the religious right. If the US no longer is entirely dependent on gas, rising prices will effect no one. So, props to McCain for a good temporary solution, but last I checked a presidency runs 4 - 8 years. What happens after the 3 months?
Matt, your insinuating Obama is Pablo’s dog for big oil. This is preposterous. So big oil gives him about $500,000…. but average Joe American is giving him about $40 million a month… did you forget that? Oh right, you can’t mention it because McCain is coming know where near that marker with donations. Though he is about on par with Obama with Lobby group Donations. Liberal is a bad word, but Hypocrite is not?!?! Man you fellas have a really messed up way of rationalizing things.
24. hermie | April 25th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Where IS Pelosi’s plan?
The last Dem ‘plan’ I recall was to jack up gasoline taxes at least $1 a gallon so that Americans would be forced to ‘conserve’.
And the Dems are crying about high gas prices NOW?
25. Kahn | April 25th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Hermie, right. Bush will sign just about anything at this point.
Democrats, you’re in control… LEAD!
What the heck is your plan?
26. Some Assembly Required | April 25th, 2008 at 9:33 am
As far as I can tell, the plan is to vastly reduce tax subsidies to big oil. Further investigate price gouging. Explore alternative means of energy and increase fuel efficiency in automobiles. What has Bush done? What does McCain plan on doing after the summer’s over, when heating your home and driving to work take 3/4 of your pay check? Funny how a Green Day song comes to mind ‘Wake me up, When September Ends’
You can cop out and say the democrats have been in power the last two years and prices have sky rocketed, but it still doesn’t explain how oil can go from $25 a barrel to $119 in seven years. The TRUTH is no ones hands are clean in this. For too long government has catered to big oil. It’s about high time we look for alternative solutions and question why refinery’s are shutting down especially if demand is so high. If supply is truly the problem that they say it is WHY is gas not rationed? WHY is there no shortage like in the 70’s? I’m not buying the ’supply’ argument anymore. If gas stations were shutting down and pumps were out of gas then I’d understand the high prices. The fact of the matter is they are not.
27. Timothy Horrigan | April 25th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Obama evidently felt that a small gas tax reduction (limited to the state of Illinois) in 2000 was a good idea but he opposes a massive federal one now.
This is typical liberal flipfloppery, I will admit. He is not showing the consistency and resoluteness we have come to expect from George W. Bush. This proves that Obama’s positions on the issues will constantly be changing based on changing realities in the world around him. This isn’t like Dubya who sticks unbendingly to his core positions no matter what happens, no matter what anyone else does, and no matter how the world changes around him.
This alos shows typical liberal logic. They seem to think that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. So, for example, they believe that a small tax cut can be good but a larger one would be bad. McCain shares Dubya’s understanding of how the world works: o.e., more of a good thing will ALWAYS be better than less of it.
28. Robin Naismith Green | April 25th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Well here we go.
First off these are two divergent issues one at the state level in a time when the price of gasoline was overheating in places like Illinois because of the need to reformulate gasoline because of emission standards the other at the federal level because the economy is stagnating due to a weak dollar.
Margolis actually read something before you give reasons for high gasoline and oil prices. The price of oil is going up because of speculation and demand in India and China and of course because of the weak dollar. The price of gasoline is going up because of a dearth of refining capacity [running currently at below post Hurricane Katrina levels ]. Drilling in ANWR really won’t do anything because if you don’t refine the oil into fractals it means nothing to the markets.
29. RC | April 25th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Obama voted for a STATE temporary gas tax holiday. He does not think a FEDERAL NATIONWIDE gas tax holiday is a good idea. Big difference between state and nation. This isn’t a flip flop. The circumstance are totally different.
McCain on Iraq then-
“Because I know that as successful as I believe we will be, and I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women.” [CNN, 9/24/02]
“We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.” [CNN, 9/29/02]
“But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” [MSNBC, 1/22/03]
McCain on Iraq now-
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that he knew the Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough,” and that he was “sorry” for those who voted for the war believing it would be “some kind of an easy task.” “Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for”
That is a flip flop.
30. Amanda | April 25th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Good info on why a gas tax holiday is bad tax policy (and why Obama is right to change his position… which makes you wonder why McCain, in his infinite wisdom, still thinks it’s a good idea):
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/1689.html
31. js | April 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
obama is a putz
both he and hillary are nutz
32. Amanda | April 25th, 2008 at 11:55 am
My guess is, it’s because McCain just doesn’t understand economics:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/can-this-be-true/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24305534/
33. LNC | April 25th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Tractacus…
That’s 5% out of 6.25%… in other words, MOST of the taxes the state was charging. Not 5% period.
So, say a gallon of gas is $3. State tax on that was 18.75 cents per gallon, and Obama was proposing temporarily suspending 15 cents of that 18.75 cents, not 1 cent, like your post seems to indicate.
34. Diana Powe | April 25th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Danish Artist,
Yes, the Democrats “steal more money is gasoline taxes” and they go directly into the highly socialistic construction of interstate highways, bridges and mass transit projects. That transportation infrastructure needs to get out there and pull itself up by its bootstraps.