From The Road
June 18, 2008 3:39 PM

McCain: Obama's Rhetoric Usually Amounts to New Taxes

By
John Bentley
Topics
John McCain
(CBS)

From CBS News' John Bentley:

SPRINGFIELD, MO. – Accusing Barack Obama of wanting to raise taxes instead of giving consumers short term relief from gas prices, John McCain continued to press his argument for lifting the ban on offshore oil exploration today. "When the speechmaking is over and you stop to figure out what all the rhetoric really amounts to, the answer is usually some new tax," McCain said about Obama. "He is convinced that a 1970's-style windfall profits tax is just what America needs in the 21st Century."

McCain spoke at an energy roundtable forum on the campus Missouri State University today, advocating offshore oil exploration as a short-term solution for rising fuel costs. "In the short term, this requires more domestic production, especially in the Outer Continental Shelf," he said. "We must assure affordable fuel for America by increasing domestic production. When I announced this policy the other day, Sen. Obama wasted no time in mischaracterizing it. He described my position as – you guessed it – another example of Bush's third term."

But McCain and Bush are now on the same page about possible offshore drilling. Although the president supported the ban on oil exploration off the coasts in the past – his father was president at the time the legislation passed – the current President Bush held a press conference this morning calling on Congress to lift the 27-year-old ban.

Obama argues, though, that even if you started drilling now, there would be no immediate effect on gas prices. "There is no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now – at best you're looking at five years or more down the road," Obama said. "Even the most optimistic assumptions indicate that offshore drilling might reduce the overall world price of oil by a few cents, so this is not something that's going to give consumers short term relief, and it is not a long term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular."

Add a Comment
by brittanicus-2009 June 18, 2008 10:53 PM EDT
If the U.S. grants amnesty and gives citizenship to 12 to 30 million illegal migrants, as Senators Obama and McCain propose. Those naturalized citizens could possibly add 120 million U.S. and foreign-born relatives to the U.S., in the next 20 years who all consume energy. Then again, if America adopt the SAVE ACT and millions of illegal aliens leave these shores, gas would be more obtainable.

Our highways are clogged with vehicles, but since Arizona started clamping down on illegal workers, the road traffic has thinned out. Diversity Alliance for Sustainable America. www.earthtimes.org/ You must decide your children''s future, your jobs by demanding Democrats sponsor the Federal SAVE ACT (H.R.4088 enforcement in the workplace) Call toll-free (2022243121 )
NUMBERSUSA. Tell everybody..!
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by omaar-101 June 18, 2008 9:06 PM EDT
George Bush Jr....

1. The Biggest of big Spending Presidents.

2. The Biggest War Monger and its Cost to the American Public...20 Billion per month.

3. 1 Million Plus Iraqi Children, Women & Men & over 4,090 US Soldiers Killed...

All under False Pretenses.

4. McCain, Oh Yeah, he won`t raise your Taxes, Worse than when George W. Bush Sr. Promised `no New Taxes` knowing Full Well, there has never been a time in Congress or a Presidency, when there was never a New or Established Increase in the Taxing of US Citizens, Inflation & Population dictate taxes and Taxes are Never ending, Live with it.




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by KYJurisDoctor June 18, 2008 8:18 PM EDT
SHAMEFUL political posturing that is NO different from the oil tax holiday proposed earlier by the likes of BILLARY Clinton -- and John McCain!
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by trbundro1277 June 18, 2008 7:00 PM EDT
McCain: Obama%u2019s Rhetoric Usually Amounts to New Taxes... more republican lies! New or more taxes on the rich maybe. But most of us in this country that make less than 250,000 bucks per year, will actually get taxed less with Obama as president! If Mccain really hates Obamas ideas of 70''s era windfall taxes, then what is Mccains idea to lessen the gap in this country from the very rich to the very poor? Oh yeah, thats right, he wants to make the rich richer and the poor poorer!
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