Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the summer federal gas-tax holiday proposed by Senators John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton “about the dumbest thing I’ve heard in a long time,” reports the Daily News. Bloomberg, who has not yet endorsed a candidate, also offered praise for Barack Obama, who shares the mayor’s dim view of the idea. As the tax reprieve would only save drivers about $30, Bloomberg slams it as not only bad tax policy but bad energy policy as well, arguing that the negative impact of failing to discourage people from driving far outweighs such a small benefit to consumers.
Meanwhile, Nick Timiraos in the Wall Street Journal today, wrote that while Obama’s opposition of the plan was “winning plaudits from editorial boards and economists -- [it] isn't always getting through to voters worried about rising gas prices,” and, as such, could prove “politically treacherous.” Economists, including Harvard’s N. Gregory Mankiw, former chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, have criticized the proposal because it would deplete the federal highway trust fund. The debate over the proposed cut prompted Mankiw to remember an exchange that occurred during the election of 1956:
Woman in crowd: Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person." Adlai Stevenson: That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!”
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