A commentary by Jim Anderson:
John McCain has suggested a suspension of the Federal gasoline tax this summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Tim Curry in an article over at MSNBC comments that “you may have heard the Republican presidential nominee propose something similar before — 12 years ago when the GOP nominee’s name was Dole, not McCain.” Curry also notes that “more recently, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, running for election in 2006, proposed the ‘The Menendez Federal Gas Tax Holiday Amendment . . . .’”
Currently the Federal gas tax is 18.4 cents a gallon. When gas is selling for about $3.50 a gallon, as it was around here today, that is about five percent of the cost. The higher the price of a gallon goes, the smaller a percentage the fixed tax represents. If gas sells for $4.00 a gallon this summer, the Federal gas tax as a percentage will drop to 4.6 %. The states also impose gas taxes, and generally all of the taxes go to support road construction and repair. So it is a user-fee; the more you drive, the more you pay.
McCain rightly describes the gas tax as “regressive.” The poor have to pay it to get to work, and it amounts to a higher percentage of their income than it would for the wealthy or middle-class. Normally, I am against regressive taxation, but I am willing to make an exception in the case of the gas tax. First, high gas taxes (which the Fed tax is not) discourage gas consumption, and that is a good thing to do. Second, gas taxes help support the transportation system. With an even higher Federal gasoline tax, we could even finance a decent mass transit system for the United States and its cities. Then the poor could ride a less expensive train or bus to work. So, instead of pandering to voters with his lame and recylced gas tax holiday idea, McCain ought to do the right thing and proposed a hike in the tax to the levels in Europe. But he won’t because he is just another in a line of “cut taxes and keep on spending” Republicans.
