Post

Candidates from *both* parties are calling for the federal and/or state gas taxes to be suspended, which makes sense from an election POV but seems like a TERRIBLE idea from a fiscal/budgetary (and also environmental) POV. Even if you support doing so, when exactly would they be reinstated?

If you leave it open-ended, you give Republicans a MASSIVE in-kind donation for 2028, since Dems would be put on the spot to "vote for a huge tax hike on the middle class" etc etc even if they're just restoring to to where it is now. If you put a hard deadline on it...when would that be, exactly?

For that matter, it wouldn't do much good in most states anyway. The federal gas tax is 18.3¢/gallon. The average price of regular gas has gone up $1.50 since Trump decided to invade Iran for no particular reason, and could go up another $0.50 or more by Election Day.

There are 32 states where the gas tax is $0.33 or less, so suspending BOTH the federal AND state gas taxes *completely* would only cancel out about 1/3 of the price hike to date, and only 1/4 of what it's likely to go up to by Election Day... ...while wiping out all of the road maintenance revenue.