An Obama hiss, but no heckle

Perhaps Sen. Obama should be asked whether he supports the gasoline taxes that add 75 cents to the cost of each gallon of gas. And if anyone agrees with him that higher gas prices (the result of such taxes) are a good thing.

Sen. Obama should have the courage to speak out against the use of ethanol. It is merely a boon for corn farmers and ethanol refiners; it doees nothing for the environment, as it takes more energy (generated by coal- or refuse-burning power plants, in the case of ADM) to refine than ethanol provides.

Perhaps John McCain was the mystery hisser.

I don't mind the 75 cent tax knowing it goes to the public good -- road construction and repair....my objection is the $1.50 a gallon idiot tax that we're paying since Bush was appointed....yes, gas was $1.46 a gallon on the day the SCOTUS installed his regime back in 2001...nice to know that we've all contributed to the $400 million golden parachute for the retiring CEO of Exxon/Mobil...

Bruce,

First, thank you for keeping up with Sen. Obama - I'm sure he and his campaign appreciate your concern.

Second, can't speak for anyone else, but I support 75 cents/gallon gasoline and I agree that higher gas prices are a good thing. The more that can be done to convince people to trade in their monstrous SUVs for economy cars, and trade in their economy cars for bikes, El passes and walking shoes, the better. It will cut down on environmental pollution, gridlock on our streets and highways, and fat on our collective backside. It will increase demand for nationwide public transportation systems and better, safer bike paths (and the extra tax will provide a source of funding to provide for such demands). It will increase demand for development of alternative fuel sources, and the funding to do it. It will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and therefore our support of terrorist-supporting nations. It will reduce or eliminate the "need" to ever drill in ANWR.

The only drawback I can think of would be increased inflation due to rising shipping costs. Maybe shipping/trucking companies could be exempt from the tax or maybe they would be forced to better utilize and develop rail shipping methods (not to mention become involved in the pursuit of alternate fuel sources).

One thing I know for sure is that pandering to people's insatiable demand for cheap gas, such as reducing environmental restrictions, drilling in ANWR, and dipping into strategic reserves, ain't the way to go about it.

There you go again Bruce, just like every other Bushie-moron out there trying to put the blame for high oil prices on Democrats, when the Bush Administration and the Republican led House and Senate, with all their ties to the oil industries that have been making multi-billion quarterly profits, try to act like their innocent. The oil industries blame high prices on high demand by foreign countries, as if suddenly there were millions of more cars on the road in China and India, yet I don’t recall news reports of foreign car makers turning billion dollar profits that those car sales would generate.

Bruce, once again you miss the big picture. So what if they lower the fuel tax? They'll just move the tax on to the oil companies who'll raise prices higher...or just raise taxes on the middle class. The bottom line is that the instigator of this entire situation is the oil companies. Lowering the tax would be conceding defeat to them.

Why do you oppose taxes but defend oil companies making record profits even while they say with a smirk that they can't control the prices? One would have to be a complete ignoramous to believe this. But I forgot, the government collecting taxes for the public good is evil but corporations can do no wrong. It's the GOP's mantra of utter failure which is why they crash and burn every 10 years or so. One would think they'd learn.

Perhaps Sen. Obama should be asked whether Bruce supports the roads that come from the taxes that add 75 cents to the cost of each gallon of of gas. And if anyone agrees with him that highways and transportation (the result of gas taxes) are a good thing.

or perhaps we can ask the GOP leadership in Washington why they have done nothing to keep down energy prices while those same energy companies continue to make billions more on top of billions.

see bruce, the taxes I can deal with, it's the leadership that subsidizes the richest businesses on earch that I can't.

rory, i dislike bush (and bruce) as much as you, but don't be an idiot. China and India are growing at breakneck speeds. They ARE buying many more cars than they used to, and factories and other heavy machinery dependent on oil and gasoline are in heavy demand. you and Nancy Pelosi make democrats look stupid when you say (as she did) that "it's cause and effect" that Bush used to be an oilman so therefore gas prices are high. You CAN be a bush-hatin' democrat AND have a grasp of fundamental economics at the same time, right?

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but it seems in the flurry over $3 gasoline, everyone is forgetting that except for in a few screwed up countries where it is subsidized (Iraq comes to mind), our prices are still among the lowest in the world. Last year honeymooning in the UK, we paid something like two pounds PER LITRE.

What does this mean? It means that our artificially low gas prices, made possible by low taxes and huge military bills in an attempt to maintain stability in areas like the Middle East, have effectively been subsidizing our economy all this time, encouraging us to burn gasoline like crazy because it was so cheap. Now that we are paying a bit more (though still less than the vast majority of the world), it smarts, but we have nobody but ourselves to blame for putting us in this situation. Bruce, I would support taxes of $1.75/gallon if that money was funding research into alternative energy sources!