Editorial: Drivers could use break from gas tax

Tax Day came and went Tuesday, with thousands of last-minute filers rushing to the post office before midnight.

The annual rite of filing returns is especially painful with a troubled economy on the brink of recession. The prospect of an economic stimulus check is fueling little optimism among consumers.

Senior citizens in Green Valley and young families in Sahuarita need money to pay for necessities such as food, clothing, medicine and gasoline. Instead, they had to write checks for the government to fund a questionable war in Iraq and pay for a never-ending list of pork barrel spending.

The presidential candidates have seemed oblivious to taxpayers’ pain until Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., floated a brilliant idea Tuesday. The GOP nominee in waiting called for a summer-long suspension of the federal gasoline tax.

Summer in Arizona brings thoughts of California beaches or a trip home for thousands of residents. The high price of gas, skyrocketing because of record oil prices that nearly hit $114 a barrel Tuesday, was threatening to postpone the best laid plans of hard-working women and men.

McCain’s proposal to waive the federal gas tax (18.4 cents a gallon for gas and 25 cents a gallon for diesel) from Memorial Day to Labor Day is better than an economic stimulus check.

Under President Bush’s stimulus plan, the check will arrive in the mail sometime in late spring or early summer, and you’ll have to repay it, essentially, when you file your taxes next year. In some ways, that’s no better than a payday loan.

With the reduction in gas prices, consumers will feel the relief immediately. Commuters and vacationers will save hundreds per month at the pump.

By some estimates, the government would lose about $10 billion in revenue under the idea pitched by McCain, who also renewed his call for the United States to stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and thus lessen to some extent the worldwide demand for oil.

Unfortunately, politicians from the federal level down will oppose McCain’s bill when it’s introduced. The federal gasoline tax helps pay for highway projects in nearly every town through a dedicated trust fund. Lawmakers are not keen on cutting anything.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Democratic candidates Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and McCain have had trouble connecting with voters on economics. They don’t seem to understand the plight of the average American.

Obama, in fact, made a speech last week in San Francisco in which he suggested “bitterness” forces some Americans to cling to their guns, religion and the opposition to illegal immigration. The comments suggested a disconnect between Obama and middle-class and rural voters. He will have trouble explaining his words to independents in the General Election.

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, released their tax returns since 2000 late last month. They have made more than $109 million since Clinton left office in early 2001.

McCain, meanwhile, lives a multi-millionaire’s lifestyle of jet-setting and privilege. His wife’s holdings in Phoenix include the local Anheuser-Busch distributorship. She’s worth $100 million by conservative estimates. When McCain returns to Arizona from the campaign trail, he bypasses the hundreds of homes facing foreclosure in Maricopa County and heads straight to his retreat in exclusive Sedona, hardly the place for a candidate to learn about the average voter.

Still, McCain knows he’s weak on economics. He’s trying to address concerns about rising gas prices and the credit crunch by attempting to lower taxes. Besides his call to suspend the gas tax, McCain called for long-term reforms we support. They include:

Raising the tax exemption for each dependent child from $3,500 to $7,000;

Requiring affluent people — couples making more than $164,000 — enrolled in Medicare to pay a higher premium for their prescription drugs than less-wealthy people;

Offering people the option of choosing a simpler tax system with two tax rates and a standard deduction instead of sticking with the current system;

Suspending for one year all increases in discretionary spending for agencies other than those that cover the military and veterans.

Obama and Clinton have said they will allow tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 — and that McCain opposed — to expire. They also mistakenly attacked McCain’s proposals as tax cuts for the rich and affluent.

“All these tax increases are the fine print under the slogan of ‘hope:’ They’re going to raise your taxes by thousands of dollars per year — and they have the audacity to hope you don’t mind,” McCain said, playing on the title of Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

According to the Tax Foundation, Americans will work 113 days this year to pay their federal, state and local taxes. That alone should generate support for McCain’s gas tax relief.

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