What Were They Thinking???
by Len Burman and Eric Toder
Senator McCain proposed today to suspend the 18.4 cents per gallon federal excise tax on gasoline between Memorial Day and Labor Day this year. For a moment, forget about whether encouraging fossil fuel burning makes sense during a time of global warming, whether we should raid the highway trust fund when bridges are collapsing for lack of maintenance, or the disconnect between the proposal to cut gasoline taxes and the candidates’ endorsement of “cap-and-trade” limits that would raise gasoline prices.
Even in this alternative reality, there’s a problem. Refiners run near capacity every summer as families rack up miles on family
vacations. That’s one reason why gas prices jump in the summer. If McCain’s excise tax cut translated into lower prices, we’d all want to drive more, which would push up the demand for gasoline. Since the refiners can’t produce much more without building new refineries, the price has to go back up.
Higher prices might stimulate a little more production and we might import more gasoline from our neighbors. But the price will have to increase by almost the amount of the tax cut. Otherwise, there will be shortages. Unless the plan’s aim is to boost short-term profits for petroleum refineries, the proposal makes no sense.
Another problem is that even if it were a good idea in principle, it would be an administrative nightmare for the IRS and create huge compliance headaches for taxpayers. For one thing, it’s a bad idea to turn a major tax off in May and back on again in September.
For another, there are transition issues at both ends. Retailers expecting a tax holiday may decide to deplete their stocks in anticipation of the Memorial Day tax cut. Similarly, if retailers expect the tax to be reinstated, they might stock up to avoid the Labor Day tax increase. Either response could produce temporary spot shortages or higher prices. To avoid this, the government has always imposed a “floors stocks” tax or provided a rebate when the tax was scheduled to increase or decrease. In this case, it means a subsidy for inventories held when the tax is suspended followed by a tax on inventories when the tax is reinstated. The costs of such rules would be very high relative to any benefit from such a short-term program. The IRS could also face challenges in monitoring which inventories qualify for the subsidy or should be subject to the tax.
And, finally, of course, in addition to all the economic and administrative issues, there are also the questions of political practicality. Congress would have to enact the law before Memorial Day—warp speed in legislative terms—and then sit tight as the tax is restored just 60 days before the elections.
So we guess it is just empty rhetoric—maybe not surprising during a campaign, but a little disappointing from the straight-talk express.
PS, Paul Carons provides a pithy capsule summary of Sen. McCain's tax proposals on his TaxProf Blog. For a side-by-side comparison of candidates' proposals, see TPC's tax plan matrix.
[...] acknowledges his gas tax holiday would reduce state revenues by about $2 million-a-day. Maryland, it happens, faces a $1.4 billion [...]
[...] acknowledges his gas tax holiday would reduce state revenues by about $2 million a day. Maryland, it happens, faces a $1.4 billion [...]
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No – Cheney is the oil BARON king reaping massive profits as is dumb bunny Bush !!! You need to read the SCIENTIFIC evidence (not political ranting) about global warming.
Gawd! I agree with Obama, I'm going to be sick!
More than 35 years ago, there were warnings that the World would run out of oil. We were warned of this fact after the first OPEC Oil Embargo in 1973 and then warned again after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. This time, there's no obvious disruption, yet the world wide price of oil is increasing. This time, maybe the politicians should start talking about Peak Oil, that is, the situation in which world oil production reaches maximum and then begins to decline. If we are at that point (or past it, as some say), then the demand is likely to exceed supply until prices reach punishing levels.
In economics, there are 2 ways to allocate such a shortage, first, allow the prices to rise or second, to actually ration the resource. Reducing prices by cutting taxes only makes things worse. In my opinion, the U.S. should have raised gasoline taxes over the years just as the Europeans did. We should have added $0.25 per gallon after the OPEC Embargo, another $0.25 after the Iranian Crisis, another $0.50 after the Tanker War in the Persian Gulf and continue to at least $2.00 per gallon today. Had we done this, the average person would not have bought SUV's or similar gas guzzler beginning in the 1990's.
So, we are all paying for the lack of leadership from our political class. We no longer have leaders, only (poll) followers who make grand promises which sound great in a moment of perceived crisis end up making things worse in the long run. This time, there's no easy way out.
E. S.
Actually it's the government causing these price fluxes in commodities. Think about it. The gov subsidizes farmers for corn to make ethanol, thus raising the cost of food. The gov raises taxes on gas while putting more regs on oil companies to use more ethanol and enviromental formulations for phony global warming, thus driving the cost to refine oil up, while environmental wackos halt any new refinery construction.
Since dems took over congress in '06, prices have skyrocketed. Dems are the true oil barons, not repubs. Al Gore owns 20k shrs of OXY stock and corn, etc., DUH!