WILMINGTON, N.C. — The focus of the nation’s presidential campaigns turned to the pocketbook Monday as Hillary Rodham Clinton unveiled a plan to suspend federal gas taxes while her Democratic rival, Barack Obama, and Republican John McCain traded criticism over the impact of a gas-tax cut.
A week before May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina and with the Hoosier State viewed as yet another must-win contest for Clinton, the New York senator proposed a windfall-profits tax on oil companies to make up for the shortfall from suspending the 18.4-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline and the 24.4-cent-a-gallon tax on diesel fuel during peak summer months.
McCain, the Arizona senator and presumptive GOP nominee, was the first to endorse a federal motor-fuel tax suspension between Memorial Day and Labor Day. But Obama, an Illinois senator, has questioned the value of such a move, saying it would save consumers little and do nothing to prevent oil companies from increasing the pump price.
Obama and Clinton have called for more stringent regulatory measures to prevent price gouging. But Obama’s opposition to the so-called gas-tax holiday provided yet another venue for Clinton and McCain to team up on the Democratic presidential front-runner.
The unveiling of Clinton’s proposal, backed up by a new TV ad in Indiana, also represented her continued efforts to secure an advantage over Obama among white, blue-collar voters. “With gas this expensive, talk is cheap. It’s time for leadership,” a narrator says.
“Sen. McCain says he’s all for a gas-tax holiday but won’t pay for it,” Clinton said in Graham, N.C., adding that “my opponent, Sen. Obama, opposes giving consumers a break.”
In Wilmington, N.C., Obama criticized McCain’s proposal as a “short- term quick fix” that would save drivers $25 to $30 or “half a tank of gas.”
“We could suspend the gas tax for six months, but that’s not going to bring down the gas prices long- term,” Obama said. “We’ve got to go after the oil companies and look at their price gouging. We’ve got to go after windfall profits, . . . then we’ve got to use less oil, and that means raising fuel-efficiency standards for cars.”
Like Clinton, Obama also contended McCain has failed to explain how lost federal gas-tax revenue, earmarked for the nation’s highway trust fund, would be made up. McCain, however, said his plan would replenish the trust fund out of general revenue.
McCain and Republicans also have repeatedly chided Obama’s opposition to a federal gas-tax holiday, noting that his criticisms echo ones directed at him when, as state senator, he voted for a temporary suspension of the Illinois sales tax on gasoline to reduce pump prices.
Though Clinton has trailed Obama in North Carolina polling, she was expected to get the endorsement of the state’s governor, Mike Easley, a superdelegate who could help buttress her organization. Obama gained another convention superdelegate with the endorsement of New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman.
Meanwhile, new polling shows that Clinton may have gained some momentum after her win in Pennsylvania last week. A new Associated Press-Ipsos survey showed Clinton would fare stronger nationally at this stage in a prospective matchup against McCain than Obama. Clinton leads McCain 50 percent to 41 percent, while Obama is up 46 percent to 44 percent over McCain.
