Use this handy little calculator to figure it out.
We own a 2007 Honda Accord, which averages about 20-22 miles per gallon in the rush hour traffic that my wife faces getting to work. For that car, we’d “save” about $ 32.86 over the entire summer.
We spent more than that filling the tank of that car last week. Heck, we spent more on groceries
Our other car is a 2006 Honda Pilot, which averages about 17-19 miles per gallon in the driving that I do during the average week. On that one, we’d “save” about $ 38.33 over the entire summer.
Again, less than a full tank of gas or a week’s worth of groceries.
Over the period from Memorial Day to Labor Day, that averages out to about $ 23.73 per month, $ 5.93 per week, and $ .85 per day.
Anyone who thinks that’s going to help the economy is deluding themselves.
I’m generally in favor of lower taxes, but this proposal from both Senator McCain and Senator Clinton is no solution to the “problem” of higher gasoline prices — which is really just a reflection of supply, demand, and the fact that the world’s most important commodity is primarily located in the world’s most unstable region.
Once again, the gas tax holiday idea is a phony, pandering scam.
But don’t believe me, run the numbers yourself and see what you come up with.
Update: The other lesson of the experiment above is that the more fuel-efficient your car, the less a gas tax holiday will matter to you. So, if you own a Hummer, I guess you’re all in favor of this stupid idea.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:33 am
The people that believe this will help are not even good students of economics. When demand goes up, so does price. So if we remove the taxes and thereby lower the price, the demand rises which brings prices right back up. So we don’t really end up saving even the piddly amount the calculator comes up with. And on top of that, if the feds give up the gas tax, they’ll hit us somewhere else to make it up. So the bottom line is that not only will we not save on gas expenses but we’ll pay more in other taxes somewhere else. It will actually COST us money if the gas “holiday” is implemented.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:56 am
[…] I did it the other day, it showed that we’d “save” about $ 70.00 over the entire summer — assuming of course that all other things remain equal and the price of oil remains the same […]
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:43 pm
[…] Right: The Gas-Tax Holiday Idea Is A Phony, Pandering Scam Hillary Clinton Panders At The Gas Pump How Much Would You Actually Save If The Federal Gas Tax Was Suspended For The Summer ? Obama Responds To Hillary’s Gas Tax Ad More On The Gas Tax Holiday Scam Hillary Clinton Continues […]
May 7th, 2008 at 9:07 am
We don’t need a suspension, we need a major price reduction.
These so-called temporary fixes don’t solve anything and we still end up paying out the nose for it somewhere down the line.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:56 am
[…] supposed to be one of the new breed of Republicans in the House signing on to an idea that won’t help the average American one bit and is unlikely to have any impact on the price of gas at the […]
June 9th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
[…] I noted more than once —- see here, here, here, here, and here —- the absurdity of the idea that suspending an 18-cent per gallon for three […]
June 28th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I don’t think the summer supension of the 0.18 gas tas will help me much. I don’t plan to drive much this summer.