President Joe Biden is calling for a three-month gas tax holiday to lower the price at the pump. Interestingly, former President Obama opposed a gas tax holiday when energy prices were much lower. In fact, he called temporarily suspending the tax a “gimmick.” The US government currently charges 18 centers per gallon of gasoline and 24 cents per gallon of diesel.
In his 2020 memoir “A Promised Land,” Obama stated that opposing the temporary suspension was one of the reasons he beat Hillary Clinton in the 2008 US Presidential Election. “I was sure that consumers wouldn’t see much benefit. In fact, gas station owners were just as likely to keep gas prices high and boost their own profits as they were to pass the three-cents-a-gallon savings on to motorists,” Obama stated in his memoir after noting that Clinton and GOP candidate McCain both endorsed the idea.
Numerous politicians from both sides of the spectrum have stated that they cannot guarantee a tax holiday would ease consumer costs. In the face of the current energy crisis, a measly tax break will not help those struggling to afford gasoline in a significant way. Instead, America needs to boost production, reimplement pipeline deals, and begin fracking until a viable alternative option is available.
