Clinton focuses on Obama's opposition to gas tax plan

Tuesday 29th April, 06:56 AM JST

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SezWho2 at 10:31 PM JST - 29th April

Taka,

Thanks for the reminder. I get it now. 5% not 5 cents.

So that makes the savings about $35, being charitable. Obama was right and we can elect him as Cipherer-in-Chief. I, alas, have to disqualify myself as a careful reader.
adaydream at 11:29 PM JST - 29th April

McCain just wants to suspend the taxes. But the tax has to be collected from somewhere to make up for funds not collected through gas taxes. And bridges continue to get built.

At least when Clinton talks about suspending the tax, it has to be replaced. That means we'll have to borrow more money from China to suspend the gas tax. Doesn't make much sense.
WhiteHawk at 12:05 AM JST - 30th April

Has anybody noticed that the U.S. government makes more profit on each gallon of gas than the oil companies do? And that's in the U.S., which has lower gas taxes than the UK and Japan!

As for the issue of funding roads and transit, all too often the taxes are funneled into the general fund, and spent on pet projects and vote-buying entitlements. We have a law in Tennessee that prohibits that, but it didn't stop our governor, Phil Bredesen(D). But instead of any consequences for him, our esteemed legislature has only passed another law repeating the first.

Oregon must have used its gas taxes for other purposes, because they were trying to find new ways to create revenue to offset the decrease in gas consumption after the liberals in their state bought hybrids.
adaydream at 12:12 AM JST - 30th April

Whitehawk, how much are other countries paying in taxes on gasoline?

Is there a comparison link that shows these numbers.
WhiteHawk at 02:17 AM JST - 30th April

adaydream, I'll see if I can find a link. I remember the blokes on Top Gear were discussing the topic on a recent episode; the oil companies were getting 35p/liter (gross) while the government was getting 65p/liter.
adaydream at 02:24 AM JST - 30th April

The items I've seen here in the states on CNN etc. is about:

50% cost of crude 25% refining 5% federal taxes 5% end of the line profits, stations/dealers 15% state taxes Now I know my numbers are off a little.

But the taxes accessed on gasoline in the states is much less then in Europe and other parts of the world.
WhiteHawk at 02:36 AM JST - 30th April

So that's 3 times the profit for state taxes than for the oil companies, is that right? Was there any mention of federal taxes? My city also has local taxes on each gallon.
WhiteHawk at 02:40 AM JST - 30th April

Aha! Here is a map of gas taxes for the U.S.:

http://www.factsonfuel.org/images/pdf/GASTAXMAPJANUARY2008.pdf
WhiteHawk at 02:42 AM JST - 30th April

From the page:

Taxes add a significant amount to the price of motor fuel and vary widely by state. For the first quarter of 2008, the average state gasoline tax is 28.6 cents per gallon, plus 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 47 cents per gallon. For diesel, the average state tax is 29.2 cents per gallon plus an additional 24.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 53.6 cents per gallon.

http://www.factsonfuel.org/gasoline/index.html
WhiteHawk at 02:46 AM JST - 30th April

And here is some information on the Brits:

http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-tax.html
adaydream at 02:54 AM JST - 30th April

Thanx for the link. If you look at the total of the state excise taxes and other state taxes, that total + 18.4 cents gives you the total of taxes.

Diesel federal taxes are 22 to 24 cents percent greater. But this is overshadowed by the amout of the state taxes.

Like I said my numbers were a little fuzzy, but they are real close.

When I lived in Missouri I remember one state gas tax raise that raised it 6 cents over a few years. (Ah yes, and the state squandered it in the general funds for years and didn't give it to the road dept till several years later, with no repayment of the money diverted.)

But anyway you cut it. You cut taxes here, they got to be made back up somewhere. You keep building and repairing bridges, you got to get the money somewhere.
WhiteHawk at 02:58 AM JST - 30th April

Or the government could cut its spending...

No, that's just for those of us who fund it.
unscrejects at 05:01 PM JST - 1st May

Sorry WhiteHawk - did you say the state makes more on gas than the gas company? Due all respect sir but I would have to disagree. The oil companies make Hollywood accounting look honest. Their profit margins are the highest in any so-called "every day industry". And remember that most of the crude they're pricing at 120 bucks per barrel was actually taken from the source at about 10 bucks per barrel. We're dealing with an industry that thrives on the ignorance of the arm chair analyst. Are you familiar with West Texas? Spend six years down there and you'll know how the BP's, Chevrons et al make billions on crude they literally take out of the ground for free. And the logs are hardly, if ever, verifiable. The API paid my way through six years of schooling so I should really be grateful but... dude I was in Angola at the height of the little war and you wouldn't believe it but Gulf and Tennaco personnel were sharing the same billets with N.Korean and Russian military advisors. The US was buying 90% of it's DoD aviation class crude in Angola at less than 3 dollars a barrel. In the US the oil shippers claim full repair, upgrading and laying costs on infrastructure that is shared by the industry. They are getting away with legalized false booking of expenses. Hey in Japan they jack the price up on crude delivered three years ago when somebody in Nigeria sneezes - yet they get no supplies from there. The Arabian Oil Company scandal is a point to note - they pumped crude out of the Khafgi Field for over 30 years at no more than $3 a barrel (until around 2002) when SArabia gave them the boot.
WhiteHawk at 11:10 PM JST - 1st May

unscrejects, the last time I saw figures for what it costs to get crude out of the ground, Saudi Arabia had it cheapest a $2/barrel. America averaged $10/barrel. This was when oil was $40/barrel. West Texas crude was free? It jumped out of the ground and into tanker trucks (driven by volunteers, I suppose) with no drilling equipment or pumps to buy? Wow, I'm in the wrong line of work!

Did you follow any of my links? How do you explain the U.K. taxes at the pump, were a liter cost 95.1p in 2007, and 63.7p of that went to taxes, leaving the oil company with 31.4p? Do the U.S. or U.K. governments refine crude into petrol or diesel fuel? Do those governments transport the fuel to retail stations they've built? No, it's the oil companies who do that.

63.7p per liter. And for what...?

Do oil companies pull scams? Sure, so do our governments. So do anti-establishment activists. Which one profits the most for it?
unscrejects at 12:22 AM JST - 3rd May

WhiteHawk

We're in a hep a' truble as they say in Texas. And out there the wells were drilled decades ago. They just keep on pouring that crude out - turning the pumps on an' off according to the space in the holding tanks. And in most areas little granma's with the land sitting above the oil don't get paid a penny - they use lateral drilling. The law says if they drill on your land it's your oil. But drilling under from the side is not in the books. That was what led to Kuwait being hit in 90. They drilled under Iraqi fields and bragged about it. Actually the Texans set up the service. In Britain the government takes commissions for the concessions. And besides most of the infrastructure is virtually state owned or heavily subsidized. We're definitely in the wrong field.