Janice wrote:
In article ,
Peaceful Bill wrote:

The topic was gas prices. So what have the Dems done about the gas
prices? The dems certainly have had time to put together an energy policy.

And "secret" energy policy? ROTFLMAO!!!!

The dems have done a lot: Get a president in office who will get us out
of Iraq which will decrease the strife in the region, decreasing oil
prices. Guess what will happen if your
retarded-rode-to-school-on-the-small-bus President nukes Iran? Gas will
dramatically increase.


Yeah, that's going to happen. LOL!!!


Democrats should be chastised greatly for not doing the obvious, which
republicans would agree with: mainly decreasing the amount of blends
from the 30 or so down to say 2. Or even only one, take the most
stringent one and have everyone use.

What would the Dems do? How about raise taxes on gasoline just when the
country is looking for relief. Yeah, that's what we need!! MORE TAXES!!!

If congress passes this, the Dems don't have a chance in November:



Lawmakers Could Consider Gas Tax Hike, After Gas Tax Holiday Fails
Saturday, July 19, 2008
WASHINGTON — The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died
a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on
gasoline and diesel fuel — far from dropping — will have to go up if
they go anywhere.

Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial
Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded — with a prod
from the construction industry — that having $9 billion less to spend on
highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.

Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a
dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on
diesel fuel.

The fuel taxes go into the Highway Trust Fund, which is used for
road construction and repair and mass transit. Depriving the 52-year-old
Highway Trust Fund of $9 billion at a time when it is heading into the
red doomed the notion of a gas tax holiday in Congress.

The nonpartisan National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue
Study Commission concluded in a report this year that the U.S. needs to
spend $225 billion annually over the next 50 years to create a highway
and transit system capable of sustaining strong economic growth. Current
spending, at federal, state and local levels, is about $90 billion a year.

The American Road & Transportation Builders Association is calling
for a 10-cent-a-gallon raise and indexing the tax to inflation. With
construction costs soaring because of competition for building materials
from China and other developing nations, the tax rate would have to be
about 29 cents a gallon to achieve the same purchasing power as the
18.4-cent rate imposed in 1993, the association says.

Including state and local levies, people in the U.S. pay about 47
cents on average in taxes for a gallon of gasoline. Fuel in many
European countries costs $8 to $9 a gallon, with half or more of that
going to taxes.

During the debate over the proposed gas tax holiday, the chairman
of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. James
Oberstar, and the chairman of the highway subcommittee, Rep. Peter
DeFazio, presented fellow lawmakers with a list of how many jobs and how
much money each state would lose if the holiday were to pass. It ranged
from $30 million and 1,000 jobs in Vermont to $664 million and 23,000
jobs in California.

"Because the trust fund is already looking at a looming shortfall,
it would have moved project cancellations into the construction season,"
DeFazio, D-Ore., said in an interview. He said it was "highly unlikely"
that oil companies would have passed savings along to consumers.

Just three years ago, that trust fund enjoyed a surplus of $10
billion. Even without a tax freeze, the fund is projected to finish 2009
with a deficit of $3 billion. That could grow as Americans drive less
and buy less gas because of higher pump prices.

The consequence is that only about $27 billion in federal money
will be available next year to states and local governments for new
infrastructure investment even though the current highway act calls for
spending $41 billion a year. For many, the solution is to raise rather
than suspend or cut federal fuel taxes, which haven't changed since 1993.

The Transportation Construction Coalition, a group of industry
companies and unions, said that if Congress does not do something about
the shortfall, states will lose about one-third of their road and bridge
money in the budget year starting Oct. 1. That would put 485,000 more
jobs at risk.

That message carried the day this summer. But now Congress has the
bigger task of dealing with the short-term deficit crisis in the fund
and coming up with a new spending plan, including revisiting the gas tax
issue, when the current six-year, $286 billion highway-transit act
expires in September 2009.

Senate Democrats in May tried to add $5 billion to an aviation
overhaul bill to replenish the highway trust fund next year; Republicans
objected. Democrats tried again in June, but this time for $8 billion;
Republicans objected to that, too.

Congress should first reduce spending on pet projects, known as
earmarks, argued Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. "I'm not going to let the
Senate spend all this money when nobody is looking, especially when we
refuse to stop wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on earmarks."

Oberstar, D-Minn., said his committee is working on the next
long-term highway bill. He estimated it will take between $450 billion
and $500 billion over six years to address safety and congestion issues
with highways, bridges and transit systems.

"We'll put all things on the table," Oberstar said, but the gas tax
"is the cornerstone. Nothing else will work without the underpinning of
the higher user fee gas tax."

At the very least, the gas tax should be indexed to construction
cost inflation, DeFazio said.

Among other revenue-raising possibilities, the commission
recommended gradually increasing the current federal fuel taxes to 40
cents a gallon.

Other ideas that will be on the table when lawmakers write a bill
next year including more toll roads and public-private partnerships,
congestion pricing and user fees where drivers pay a tax based on how
many miles they drive.