by Angelina Brown

Created on: May 01, 2008

Every time I turn on the TV or the radio, I hear and ad attacking Barak Obama for having the courage to stand up and say that suspending the gas tax is a bad idea. Both McCain and Clinton want to suspend the Federal gas tax, about eighteen cents per gallon, to give Americans a break at the pump this summer. But, what they don't tell you is that you're only going to save about fifty dollars over the entire summer, about one tank of gas at the current prices. And, in the meantime, those taxes, which go to pay for roads and bridges, won't be collected. Most of our transportation infrastructure is more than sixty years old and is in need of rebuilding, repairing, and restructuring. McCain says that the taxes will come from "other taxes" without getting into specifics. What will it be, Senator? The Department of Education? What about the EPA? We don't need money in either of those coffers, do we?

And Senator Clinton wants to pay for the lost taxes by sticking it to the big oil companies, all of whom have seen record profits in the last quarter. On the surface, this seems like a good idea, right? Let's stick it to the big oil companies who are sticking it to us every time we turn over that key. Except, after eight years of Republican sucking up to big business, there are few regulations that would stop those same big oil companies from raising prices to keep that tax levy from eating into their profit margin. This is the history of big business in this country. Every time the government finds a way to make them pay for increased safety, increase environmental responsibility, or increase profits at the expense of the consumer, big businesses find a way to pass it on to the consumers. Gas prices are going up around the country, so prices of every day services are going up, too. Airlines increased their prices because of the price of fuel. Delivery services increased their prices because of the price of fuel. Food producers increased their prices because of the price of fuel. Does anyone really think that big oil won't find a way to make us pay for Clinton's proposed tax on their profits? Obama's stance has been backed up by economists and analysts on every major news network but the negative ad is still running. It would be nice to see someone in Clinton's campaign step up and say they were wrong and that the ad was in poor taste, given what the experts have had to say. But that won't happen, will it?

This election, more than any other in history, is a true reflection

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