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The Gas Tax Calculator: How much will you really save
http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=13lkzo
The $5.31 cents I save for the summer will be great! I think I might spend it on a latte, since I am a latte sippin liberal!
Look, no matter who you support, can we just call a bad idea, a bad idea. If we are so staunch in our support, that it results in us not even listening to the facts or questioning their decisions, then we are no better than the less than 25% of Americans who still believe in Bush.
Seriously now, how far will your support bring you, to the point that you still agree with bad policies or suggestions, just to support your candidate?
The $5.31 cents I save for the summer will be great! I think I might spend it on a latte, since I am a latte sippin liberal!
Look, no matter who you support, can we just call a bad idea, a bad idea. If we are so staunch in our support, that it results in us not even listening to the facts or questioning their decisions, then we are no better than the less than 25% of Americans who still believe in Bush.
Seriously now, how far will your support bring you, to the point that you still agree with bad policies or suggestions, just to support your candidate?
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Let's see:
I could buy a pack of Orbit gum... "Dirty mouth?" and a bag Doritos... mmmm... crunchy good!
or a Dunkin Donuts Coffee Koolatta, if I wanted to splurge... (however that is VERY ELITIST and ARROGANT on my part...)
May 1, 2008 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, I read: The Gay Tax Calculator: How much will you really save, and thought "Whoa...who's taxing gays and is there really a savings?" After all buying matching Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts to go out with your crew can get pretty pricey.
I used the calculator yesterday when Jabberwonk posted it here and saw that I'd save a little over $8. My client told me I'd save a little over $12. Considering the immediate and long-term costs across the board, this "gas tax holiday" sounds incredibly half-assed.
May 1, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, there are working people in this country who have to buy at least a tank of gas every week to get back and forth to work, school, etc, and they tend to own older cars which get less gas mileage, so while you can sneer at them saving 3.00 bucks a week, for some people it means having the ability to buy two loaves of bread or two cans of orange juice concentrate or two dozen eggs or 2 lbs of apples or three 18 oz boxes of corn flakes, or two quarts of milk or buying a frozen pizza for the kids or three bars of soap or 3 lbs of carrots or a jar of peanut butter that for some working poor, means the difference between their kids eating or not eating.
Yes, it will remove 9 billion from highway infrastruture, but then Clinton wanted to replace that with a windfall profits tax on the oil companies. Frankly, I'd rather some kid got a fresh apple than some oil exec piss it away on a latte, wouldn't you?
May 1, 2008 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you think for some reason that I am not a working class person making under 50K a year, you misunderstand me. Please answer me this though, what is to stop the oil companies from pushing their prices to combat with this great savings that McCain and Clinton are proposing?
May 1, 2008 7:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't make any kind of judgement on the tax holiday, you seemed to think that a savings of 3.00 a week was chump change - I merely pointed out that to some people 3.00 a week actually means something. Whether you think the bill is a good idea or not is a matter of opinion.
May 1, 2008 9:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, and the more you drive, the more you save! (Assuming the gas companies to raise prices to counteract the savings, of course.) How could that possibly be bad for the environment?
Clearly, faboo's real problem is that she's not driving enough. This is America! If you don't drive down to your mailbox to check your mail, then you're not an American!
May 1, 2008 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
That could be my problem or it's that my car gets 27mpg. I work at home and well, lately we haven't had any work, so the days of me putting 250 miles a day, 3 days a week on my car are long gone.
Even though I have about $21 in change to my name and need to fill up my gas tank, I still think this is a bad idea...and gas is $4.19/gal today.
May 1, 2008 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
What makes you think that oil exec won't just pass the windfall profits tax onto the kid so that he can have his latte anyway? After all, they are the ones that control the prices.
May 1, 2008 7:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Generally the bills written in the past concerning windfall taxes doesn't allow for the passing along of the tax, besides which a windfall tax profit is a lose/lose for oil companies that attempt to pass it on - the tax comes at the end of the year.
May 1, 2008 10:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll admit ignorance in how such bills are written, but unless they're imposing price controls I can't imagine how you'd prevent passing along of the tax, whether that tax is levied as you go or at the end of the year.
I don't always trust my intuition, but when it agrees with what seems like pretty much every economist is saying…
May 2, 2008 7:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, it isn't about price controls - it's about the federal tax on sales of gasoline. That amount will not change, at least this year, it will always remain at .184 per gallon. Even if the price of gas goes up, the savings will remain the same. The only possible way it can work is if the tax is passed on to the oil companies in the form of a windfall profit tax. It will certainly give consumers a psychological boost, but economically, it's a wash - like the income stimulus check - to me it's neither a make or break, but to some people it's a real godsend.
May 2, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
i'm going to buy Arugula with the $17.43 I'll save.
YUM!
May 2, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink