[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 59 (Thursday, May 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S4641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             GAS TAX REPEAL

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, I believe that we should not have a roll-
back of the 4.3-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax. Actually, retention of this 
tax is the sensible, national interest course to follow as we struggle 
to reduce the deficit. I fear that, like Sisyphus in Hades, we are 
doomed forever to roll the heavy stone of the deficit uphill, only to 
have it always roll down again, weighted down by yet another quick-fix 
tax cut.
  In our effort to reduce the deficit, we grapple daily with the stark 
reality that funds for education, the environment, Medicare, and the 
earned income tax credit, are all being scaled back. And now, a clarion 
call to lower the gas tax is being heard. Repealing the gas tax is 
projected to save the average motorist the grand total of about $27 a 
year in taxes. Note too, there is no certainty that the oil companies 
will actually pass this rebate on to the consumer. The effect of this 
gesture is to reduce revenues by $4.8 billion, thereby making it all 
the more difficult to reduce the Federal deficit.
  While I recognize that higher gas prices effectively reduce the take 
home pay of commuters and those whose daily livelihood depends upon the 
availability of low priced fuel, gasoline in the United States has 
become one of the ``great bargains of the Western world'' to quote 
Daniel Yergin in today's New York Times. Over the last few years, 
prices, adjusted for inflation, have been as low as at any time since 
World War II. The price of about $1.30 a gallon is exquisitely cheap 
when compared with the almost $5 a gallon paid in France.
  Rather than providing a potentially illusory benefit of $27 per 
motorist, I suggest we concentrate on those issues having a far more 
profound impact on the lives of working Americans. We have yet to 
satisfactorily grapple with proposals to increase the minimum wage, the 
projected shortfall in Medicare funds in 2001, and the fact that our 
education programs are such that the mathematics scores of some of our 
students, particularly in the Southeast region, continue to be 
lamentably low. Repealing the gasoline tax is the last thing we should 
think of doing--and we should quickly reject the idea.

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