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Anything that will keep our money out of the hands of the government is a good thing! However, Mrs. Bill Clinton is just pandering as usual.

The Clintons are so full or crap and there's a bunch of people out here who are snowed. And what do we know about this Obama fellow. gotta love America!!!

What we ought to do is nationalize the oil industry and put all those profits straight into the treasury. :>

What they ought to do is make the gas companies and the obscenely wealthy give back some of those tax breaks profits from government contracts that Obama and Congress have been handing out to the rich ever since the Reagan era, while our bridges and levees and schools crumble.

We don't have two political parties in the U.S.A. anymore. Much like Soviet Russia, we have only one, but here, it's the Money Party.

Currently there is talk about suspending the gas tax nationally for a few months in the summer. This tax amounts to about 15 cents per gallon, but it will cost us billions in the way of road and bridge repairs, not to mention construction jobs - if that’s not a slap in the face of the middle class I don’t know what is, but I digress. So, let’s look at the big picture and see what we would get. What are we being sold with this rhetoric? Let’s assume the tax gets suspended from June – September (four months) and let’s assume the average American uses a tank a week at 20 gallons a tank. The savings would be $3/week or $12/month. Figure that for four months and you save $48 – less than what most of us are paying for a tank of gas these days. We can adjust this figure for additional tanks we may consume or any planned driving trips, but the bottom line is that the consumer isn’t saving much at all.

Let’s face facts folks, the politicians spouting this tax suspension are trying to do and say anything to get into office at the expense of safety and jobs. Is that what we want as a nation? I think not. The only way we are going to be able to drive down the price of fuel is to decrease our consumption and to hold our federal elected officials accountable for selling us out to oil interests. The first objective is the simplest – decrease consumption. Start a carpool board at your job, telecommute more, take mass transit instead of driving everywhere, and let’s start walking again. We may not only save some money, but we may improve our health as well. This is a much better idea than suspending the gas tax. And once you find yourself with more time on your hands because you aren’t sitting in traffic behind the wheel as your money burns off into the exhaust, pick up a pen or grab a keyboard and send your senator or congressman a letter and ask them to get tough about lowering the price of fuel. I’m tired of the political posturing, how about you?

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm (Contact your Senator)

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml (Write your Representative)

The gas tax "holiday" is a joke. With my current driving habits it would only save me about $10 per month.

Oooh, a four month holiday would equate to a $40 windfall for me and most other typical drivers. That won't even buy one tank of gas at current prices.

Here's another angle. Many have wondered why oil production hasn't increased as much as prices have, because of course you'd expect the money-grubbing capitalists who run the oil companies to try to run up as much profit as they can while prices are this high. But according to this New York Times article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/business/worldbusiness/28oil-WEB.html

...there are some significant problems with the supply of oil (and hence obviously of gasoline as well).

The implication for you former economics students is that the supply curve for gasoline might actually be vertical right now. If that's true, then we can stop arguing whether 18.4 cents per gallon is a big deal or nothing of consequence, because the price wouldn't drop at all. If suppliers are producing all they can, then eliminating the gasoline tax would do nothing because demand would fairly quickly bid the price right back up to the starting point.

The end result is that we'd pay the same amount, but instead of sending that 18.4 cents per gallon to the federal government to maintain roads, we'd send it to the oil companies. I wonder if that would disappoint or please the tax-holiday proponents, Clinton and McCain.

The bright side is that when the tax is reinstated in the fall, prices might not rise at all either. You gotta take your good news where you can get it.