[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7160]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FEDERAL GAS TAX HOLIDAY A BAD IDEA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  During this election season, we've seen some pretty painful moments. 
It has been embarrassing, for instance, to watch the flip-flopping of 
Senator McCain on tax cuts that he is now for before he was against 
them. But there is no idea that is as bad as his most recent suggestion 
that we just have a gas tax holiday, to suspend the 18.4 cent per 
gallon Federal gas tax from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
  This is a really unfortunate suggestion. It's unfortunate to me that 
Senator Clinton appears to be embracing it. I would hope that Senator 
Clinton's staff will help her remember her own words when this proposal 
was launched by one of her opponents in 2000 when she was running for 
the United States Senate, where Senator Clinton pointed out that it 
would be a ``bad deal for New York and a potential bonanza for the oil 
companies,'' which is why she opposed it back then. Her words were true 
in 2000 and they are true today. In fact, it's even more important.
  First of all, there is absolutely no evidence that States that have 
suspended the gas tax have ended up putting any more money in the 
pockets of consumers. The research suggests that it's more likely that 
they have simply increased the amount of money that goes to the oil 
companies who are not reducing their prices to compensate for the 
reduction. At a time when ExxonMobil's profits set a new record of 
$40.6 billion, we don't have to give them even more money at the 
expense of our infrastructure, because this proposal comes at a time 
when for the first time in history the highway trust fund is going into 
deficit. And this proposal would add more than $10 billion to that 
deficit, money that will not go to State and local governments to deal 
with badly needed transportation infrastructure. It comes at a time 
when we recognize that our infrastructure is falling apart. The Society 
of Civil Engineers has graded it D-minus, and they're grading on a 
curve.
  It would be far more logical and effective to help poor citizens and 
people in rural districts that have to drive a great deal directly as a 
part of the economic stimulus, or a rebate that actually gets into 
their hands, not to the oil companies. It would make more sense to 
invest in renewable futures and green jobs, like not allowing the 
production tax credit to expire at the end of the year, costing 
thousands of jobs in the wind energy business.
  It makes sense to rebuild and renew America with a vision for the 
future, attaching a budget priority, and be honest with the American 
public, not cheap political tricks that may sound good for a moment but 
will end up hurting us in the long run.

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