TomHaynes's Blog

No gas tax reduction is going to help at $3.60 a gallon. No stimulus is going to stimulate the economy when most of us will pay bills. The only...and only thing that will help is for the oil companies to be content with the billions in profits they've made...I suppose that's not enough money for them. I believe this is a last attempt for the oil tycoons to milk the poeple before Bush is out of office. He's made a lot of rich people richer.

Yes, TAX CUTS ALWAYS WORK! Nothing good ever came from RAISING TAXES.

Blame the oil companies all you want. But Congress is responsible for stopping new drilling, I think it was 3 senators that voted against it.

It's the elite congress that's the problem. Those "career" congress people have no clue what we do to clip coupons shop for discounts because we are middle class. Most of congress are quite wealthy. They could not live the way most of us do in this country everyday. They are to busy planning their next trip to countries at tax payers expense.

It is a supply problem. With China and India hogging up more oil now it's gonna be a supply problem for a long time and we are gonna pay high prices at the pump for a very long time.

FAIR TAX!! The government would collect more taxes than they ever dreamed because finally everyone would be paying-no loopholes for the rich.

I think it is moronic, what do they think .18 cents is going to do when gas is $5.00 a gallon. why don't Obama and clinton take some of that 60+ Million their blowing on losing candidacies and help out stuggling homeowners who got suckered into a bad loan by unscrupulous mortgage bankers.Some of my neighbors have been in their homes for 30+ yrs. and losing them over some piss change from a refinance with an Adjustable Rate Mortgage. I'm a Realtor in the West End of Atlanta and if it was't for the internet I would not be able to show a listing, It's not like I can take the bus. NOW WHAT. My property value has plummeted due to the $25,000 foreclosures across and down the street, It's not just one I have 19 foreclosures on my street and all of them a emty enticing vagrants and crackheads. A tax cut on gas will do nothing for me or My neighbors.

(I just wrote a post and it got deleted. Don't you hate when that happens?) What I was saying, was I think gas prices, besides supply and demand, seem to be tied to politics. If we can sort out the refinery issue, Anwar, off shore drilling, the strategic oil reserve and, yes, taxes (both federal and local), maybe we can get somewhere. Like our bottled water, we love to consume gas -- and we're willing to pay for it.

Hi Tom Haynes,
I think you about covered it! It's more than one quick solution like a gas tax holiday. Yeah right. You know how holidays go: you work twice as hard getting ready for the holiday and when it's are over, you work twice as hard catching up. Nothing is free. The piper will be waiting in line to collect. But now Congress can stand up and feel good because they did something for the little helpless people who can't afford the gasoline. We need to get rid of the career politicians with younger business people.

Bottom line folks, we are gonna have high gasoline cost for a long time.

I think the answer to "bklynqnsgirl" comment about the government regulating gas prices is called the "free market". People will pass up the higher Shell station and buy from the lower Shell station and the higher Shell station will go out of business because it wasn't competitive.

You NEVER, NEVER, NEVER want the government to regulate prices. How would you like the government to regulate your salary? If you don't want to pay the higher price at one store, then don't buy gas there. The rest will take care of itself. Sounds like the Shell stores were to close to each other anyway.

I do not think that temporarily lowering the gas tax will provide much real relief to many Americans, especially if the rates continue to increase. Perhaps a better approach would be for the Oil companies to offer volume based gas cards to consumers, instead of the existing dollar based cards. For example, today I can go to a Shell gas station and purchase a gas card for say $50.00. What if instead of buying the gas card for $50.00, I could purchase a 20 gallon gas card (of 87, 89, or 93 octane-- whatever my vehicle requires) at whatever the existing price/per gallon charge is at the time of purchase. I am not sure if this is something that government could require or if it's something that Oil companies could initiate themselves. Of course there could be sub markets that evolve where individuals might purchase and attempt to resell the cards later at a profit, and all the ramification for that would have to be thought out and perhaps processes put in place to curtail this a bit. However, I tend to think that although rising gas prices are very painful for many, that this slight ability for Americans to have a little more control over their gas "budget" would be beneficial to some. The inability to predict what one's fuel costs will be on a weekly, monthly, or even annual basis can wreak havoc on household budgets. If I know how may miles I drive on a weekly basis, it's conceivable that I could purchase enough fuel to cover my fuel costs for an entire year. At a minimum, I would have a bit of control over what is currently the most variable part of my monthly budge

The best way for us to control the gas supply and price is not being dependent on other countries to supply us oil, Those who control the supply control the price and control us.

China has partnered with Cuba to drill 46 miles off the Florida Keys in the Gulf of Mexico for oil. The Florida Gov. doesn't want drilling 45 miles off the Florida coast. He says it will hurt tourism to his state. He doens't get it-if people can't afford the gas to get to his state, there isn't any tourism. Brazil goes on to find multiple oil reserves off their coast while we have vast oil reserves sitting in primitive Anwar. The Anwar fight has been going on for years. I understand it takes about 10 years to set up drilling and getting the oil out-so if Congress had approved drilling in Anwar, we would be very close to creating our own supply and you can bet prices would be lower.

Recently there was another huge oil find in North Dakota. Think about the employment opportunities for North Dakaota. People up there need jobs too! There is abundant oil for us, yet Congress sleeps in their chairs while other countries go get the oil.

Many do not know that nearly everyone in Congress is filthy rich. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Rockerfeller, Kennedy, these folks and othes are RICH. They do NOT live the way the rest of us do. THEY DO NOT FEEL OUR PAIN. Get rid of them. Let's put folks in Congress that are NOT beholding to lobbyist groups because they have been there for 40+ years. Folks, we have got to make some changes in Congress or we will never get out of th

Yup everybody makes valid points on this issue.
the weakest opinion is about the oil company's profits, is getting old though. No one has pointed out that opening up Anwar , the Gulf Coast and the Dakota fields has a TRIPLE BONUS ! Not only do we relieve some of our dependance on foreign oil-countries by drilling domestically, but we also have the added benefit of keeping the money here instead of sending it to the Saudis & others.
PLUS we create jobs in constuction,drilling, equipment industries, support services and enviromental protection safeguard services, etc ! We cut off funding to radicals. Keep the money here - pay down debt and employ people and do it in a clean safe way like Prudhoe Bay.
It's a freakin NO BRAINER except for a democrat !