McCain gas tax idea shortsighted

The following editorial was published today in The Arizona Daily Star, in John McCain's home state of Arizona, regarding his plan to suspend the federal gas tax for the summer.

Sen. John McCain has famously remarked that economics is not his strong suit, and certainly he proved it last week with his proposal to suspend the 18.4 cent-per-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4 cent-per-gallon federal tax on diesel fuel from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Americans and the truckers who deliver goods and services to them do in fact need relief from rising gas prices, but McCain's proposal is not the answer. In fact, it fails to address the problems:
● Supply issues that are driving up the cost of fossil fuels.
● The need for Americans to become less dependent on fossil fuels.
A tax holiday would encourage more fuel use, exacerbating supply issues, and it would do nothing to encourage us to reduce our fuel dependency.
The tax holiday is part of McCain's new economic plan to provide relief to American families, which is itself a 180-degree turn from the senator's position of a few weeks ago. At that point he was insisting that no relief package was needed and that the markets should be left to sort themselves out.
Now his idea is to save summer drivers a few dollars per tank of gas. The tax suspension would also reduce costs for truckers, and thus could have a trickle-down effect of reducing food costs (or slowing their rise). McCain and Sen. Jon Kyl, who is co-sponsoring the bill, argue that the money consumers save on gas will provide an "immediate" economic stimulus.
But the gas and diesel tax dollars are dedicated directly to the federal Highway Trust Fund, which maintains and builds roads and highways; the loss of revenue would result in fewer road repairs and construction projects, and fewer jobs for those who do the work. This is a stimulus?
We called McCain's office seeking comment on Friday because we wanted to ask about the groundswell of opposition that the proposal has triggered. Our call was not returned.
● AAA of Arizona noted in an e-mail that "suspending federal fuel taxes for three months would result in an estimated $10 billion in lost revenue to the Highway Trust Fund at a time when we need more, not less, investment in our country's transportation network."
● The American Road & Transportation Builders Associations issued a release listing 10 reasons that "using the tax as a political expediency would be bad public policy." Among them: In Arizona alone $141.5 million in federal highway funds would be lost, putting at risk nearly 5,000 road- and highway-related jobs. Nationwide the number of jobs the tax holiday would put at risk is more than 310,000, the builders group said.
● McCain's fellow Republican senator, Kit Bond of Missouri, immediately dismissed the suspension plan, saying, "I don't see how cutting funds to fix bad roads and fight congestion helps families." Bond told the Kansas City Star that the answer to high gas prices is "tapping oil reserves just waiting ... on our own lands and off our own shores."
● Gov. Janet Napolitano dubbed McCain's gas tax suspension plan a "pander" and said it will only drive the federal government deeper into debt.
"I think the Straight Talk Express has had a total U-turn," she said Wednesday at her weekly press briefing. "I think that's a pander."
Given the titanic flaws in his tax holiday "economic stimulus" plan, it certainly does look like McCain is pandering to voters who'd like to take out the RV this summer or make a long road trip in the SUV — and like he is doing so instead of deliberating about our actual problems: rising fuel costs and a struggling economy.
The gas taxes have an elegant kind of logic: Those who drive on our roads a lot pay more in taxes that then are used to maintain the roads. The taxes aren't the problem, America's dependence on motor fuel is, and so is its rising price.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee should be working to identify long-term, strategic solutions to the nation's economic and energy problems — not dreaming up drive-to-the-lake-cheap cards for voters. Your comment?