GRAND HAVEN, Mich., July 18, 2008

McCain Eyes Longer Gas Tax Holiday

Says Proposal To Suspend Tax For The Summer May Need To Be Extended

  • Interactive Gas Prices

    State-by-state averages, tips to improve mileage and a look at what fuels prices at the pump.

(AP)  John McCain said Thursday that his proposal to suspend the gas tax for three months this summer may need to be extended longer if high gas prices continue to take a toll on the economy.

"I think we ought to seriously look at whether we need to have it be longer or not depending on what the economy (does)," McCain said, standing beside the Grand River.

"I think we have to consider all options but the fact is we need a gas tax holiday. We need it, we need it, we need it very badly. The Americans that are hurt the most are low income Americans that are driving the oldest automobiles," he said.

McCain suggested the longer gas tax holiday the day before his visit Friday to a General Motors plant in Michigan, and a town hall meeting with auto workers. The auto industry was already reeling from its own problems when it was rocked again by gas costing $4 a gallon and more, and the state of Michigan's fortunes are tied to the auto industry.

The economy is the main worry of voters, and McCain has been telling crowds he can put the country on a firmer financial footing through low taxes and an emphasis on developing new energy technologies.

As the price of gas soared in the spring, McCain proposed a three-month holiday from the federal gas tax, 18.4 cents a gallon. Barack Obama has derided the idea as a political gimmick that would provide consumers little real relief, ignore the country's energy problems by perpetuating U.S. dependence on foreign oil and take money from road and bridge repairs.

© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Candidate Profiles & RSS Feeds


Add a Comment See all 94 Comments
by chrisl45 July 20, 2008 3:32 AM EDT
I don''t know about every one else, but I want to have a lot of money some day. This might be achievable with my 401K at work! The way I feel is that if I keep trying to praise money that I will enentually get more of it. Sure, it''s only a savings of a few dollars, but if I continually save money in doing everything then overall I will teach myself to have more of it. My objective is to have a lot of money by cutting corners as much as I can because it will mean something someday. A tax holiday is good because it''s the start of something such as a domino effect. The government will be forced to do more because of embarresments.
Reply to this comment
by chrisl45 July 20, 2008 3:20 AM EDT
jtyler271 said :
What?

My answer is the following. In the late 60s and early 70s, one of the biggest movies to hit the screen was the "Planet of the Apes". The second movie in the series was "Beneath the Planet of the Apes." The third movie in the series was called "After the Planet of the Apes". This series of movies was so liked by the world that even I owned a baseball card set of pitures from the movie. I wanted to go out and fight these monkeys. Anyway, if you haven''t already guessed I am a terrific SciFi fan. I still watch all the best shows and movies I can. I watch Jericho, Joan of Arcadia, Battlestar Gallactic etc. I own both versions of the movie "I am Legend". Incidentally, the alternate version of the Legend movie is better with the hero living. Anyway, you can imagine how a person such as I would react to seeing Michelle Obama with the same haircut as Zira from that old favorite movie of America. First, Michelle''s haircut doesn''t look nice to me anyway. Second, did Michelle miss the Ape movies when she grew up, or what. Third, Michelle may be telling us she is hiding a secret just like Zira was. Fourth, is Michelle psychoic about how she looks. Come on, it is totally stupid to do what Michelle did. I hate seeing a public figure fixing-up their hair that way. It''s embarresing, insulting, and condesending.
Reply to this comment
by rowdywicca July 19, 2008 12:13 PM EDT
Posted by nanc12 at 01:25 AM : Jul 19, 2008

Couldn''t be, could it, dumbassssss that they know there''s not enough oil in the existing leases to significantly reduce our depenendance on foreign oil!!

Remember, they''ve already drilled 3,000 wells on those leases!!!

We should be drilling EVERYWHERE! And stop sending billions of dollars every month to support the sheicks, and start keeping big oil money in the US!
Every $ we send to these Islamofast whack jobs that want us all killed simply makes them STRONGER!
Reply to this comment
by nanc12 July 19, 2008 4:25 AM EDT
If McSame and the repubs are so concerned about gas prices, why did they defeat the Drill Act Thursday, aimed at making the oil companies drill on already existing leases?
''House Republicans on Thursday killed a Democratic plan designed to spur drilling on already available federal lands in Alaska, the West and the western Gulf of Mexico.

Republicans renewed their demand to open up the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico to exploration.

The bill won a 244-173 majority, but still failed because it did not get a two-thirds margin under rules requiring a supermajority vote.''

Why? Because their buddies, the oil company executives, want those additional oil fields opened up to them, so they''re sitting on huge fields of oil they refuse to pump. With ''friends'' like these, who needs enemies?


Reply to this comment
by jtyler271 July 19, 2008 3:13 AM EDT
Also, according to my calculations, this gimmick will provide Americans (assuming an average 16-gal gas tank) a total of $2.88 per week, $11.52 per month, and $149.76 per year.

Ummm...yay?
Reply to this comment
by jtyler271 July 19, 2008 3:07 AM EDT
Posted by ChrisL45 at 09:33 PM : Jul 18, 2008

What?

No, seriously, what the *** was that?
Reply to this comment
by toolmangler-2009 July 19, 2008 1:12 AM EDT
HHHHmmmmm looks just like the swiftboat channel, Acts like them, talks like them makes as much real sense as them. I can no longer tell the good guys from the bad. so I will go
Reply to this comment
by chrisl45 July 19, 2008 12:33 AM EDT
Has anyone else noticed that Obama''s wife has a haircut just like the female chimp had in the movie "After the Planet of the Apes". After the apes landed in the America of their past, Zira dressed up, got her hair done exactly like Michelle''s. So,I mean how stupid can Michelle be. Anyone who grew up in the 60s remembers that haircut. Kim Hunter played Zira a chimp who got drunk and revealed that she had "dissected humans". Is Michelle telling us that she used to secretly hate "white".
Reply to this comment
by libsluv2spi1 July 18, 2008 11:11 PM EDT
McCain adviser Gramm leaves
hey looks like mccain will be the next total failure!!
Reply to this comment
by kissamaarse July 18, 2008 10:20 PM EDT
McCain! Jukebox John McCain stepped over the line today when he told a fund-raising party that Obama and other U.S. Senators would be in Iraq this weekend. American politicians trips abroad to war zones are always kept quiet, and now the pathological hypocrite McCain violates all decency and protocol. What horrible judgment, or maybe he is intentionally try to rat f*** Obama by creating an extreme security situation. America does not know the real John.
Reply to this comment
by rowdywicca July 18, 2008 10:05 PM EDT
Gooooooooooooooo John McCain! This is the best news I''ve heard yet!!!!

Yehawwwwwwww....Good for Grandpa McCain!
Reply to this comment
by standlee5 July 18, 2008 10:03 PM EDT
I agree with a gas tax holiday. Why do they need a gas tax. They''ve got an income tax. Same with the states they tax like $.40-.50 cents a gallon. They waste it on debacles like the big dig and endless studies for public transportation. Take the tax money away and teach govt. how to regulate it''s spending.
Reply to this comment
by raoul12-2009 July 18, 2008 9:24 PM EDT
IT AIN''T FUNNY, McCAIN!

McCain supposedly asked the crowd if they had heard "the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?"
The punch line: "When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, "Where is that marvelous ape?"

Back in 1998, he odiously declared before a GOP crowd: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

More recently he joked that it might be good for the United States to keep exporting cigarettes to Iran as cancer would prove an effective weapon against that country''s citizens.
Reply to this comment
by rowdywicca2 July 18, 2008 8:41 PM EDT
Mccain in 1986 told a joke during his Senate run for US Senate, Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, Where is that marvelous ape?
Reply to this comment
by rowdywicca2 July 18, 2008 8:40 PM EDT
McCain has ever filed the proper federal tax forms for gambling profits and losses, he also has a big gambling problem...
Reply to this comment
by rowdywicca2 July 18, 2008 8:39 PM EDT
McCain is, in fact, an A--hole. An A--hole who wants to be the President of the United States. As an A--hole senator, he the sort of guy who says things like:

Only an A--hole would put a budget together like this!
to New Mexico Republican Pete Dominici

I''m calling you a F--ing jerk!
to Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley

F--k you. I know more about this than anybody in the room.
to Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn

This is why Senator Dominici said in 2000 that I decided I didn''t want this guy anywhere near a trigger. It is presumed by this he meant the nuclear trigger.

Reply to this comment
by rowdywicca2 July 18, 2008 8:38 PM EDT
dowell100 - great job on how to spin the s h i t out of a subject!!
Reply to this comment
by dowell100 July 18, 2008 8:15 PM EDT

Posted by mccharacter1

Senator McCain''''s character -

Sen. John McCain, speaking to a Republican dinner, June 1998: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? ...

In 1986, during his initial run for the Senate he offered this joke, "A woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, ...
--------------------------------------

You have just told the same jokes! You have exactly the same character as McCain! What are you complaining about??? As far as character goes, you''re twins with McCain!

...Unless of course you made up the idea that McCain actually told these jokes in public. We have no way to know for sure since Obama people are twisting every little thing. I will assume that he DIDN''T tell them publicly, just you.





Reply to this comment
by don121212 July 18, 2008 6:34 PM EDT
Gas tax is a bunch of hot air - supply and demand - reduction in price equals increase is quantity demanded, because were are all ready running at full production, quantity demanded increase will raise the price to were we are currently - otherwise known as equilibrium pricing - we are eating it no matter what -


Reply to this comment
by rowdywicca2 July 18, 2008 5:06 PM EDT
we''re just in a mental recession!!
Reply to this comment
See all 94 Comments
  • MOST POPULAR
Discussed
  1. U.S. to Seek Death Penalty in 9/11 Cases

    (377 recent comments)

Exclusive Webshow

Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie." Watch Now

Latest News
News in Pictures
Scroll Left Scroll Right
Connect with CBS News

Stay connected with the CBS News using your favorite social networks and online news applications: