Senator John McCain's latest bright idea is an environmental non-starter: the GOP presidential hopeful wants to give Americans a summer "tax holiday", waiving the federal gasoline tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I've responded for Political Climate:
It’s easy to be cynical about McCain’s motives: Taking the sting out of gas prices in the run-up to the November election would be sure to win the Arizona senator brownie points with cash-strapped voters. It might also allow him to steer the debate away from economic issues, while dampening down resentment over the domestic repercussions of the war in Iraq.But regardless of McCain’s private reasons for wanting to give the American people a tax holiday, his plans are bad policy. The money raised from gas taxes is needed for essential road and bridge repairs – hardly an area in which we can afford to skimp. With the federal highway account already set to finish next year $3.2 billion in the red, even truckers agree that we need higher, not lower, gas taxes in order to keep America moving.
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