Senate Rejects Gas Tax Rollback

The Senate is making a few refreshingly agreeable decisions these days.

The Senate today rejected a measure that would have temporarily rolled back federal gas taxes, an effort with political appeal but one opponents said would siphon money away from critical transportation projects.

By 56-43, the Senate failed by 17 votes to gain the 60 votes necessary to halt debate on the bill, effectively dooming it. Before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said the debate had highlighted America's failure to deal with its dependence on foreign oil and the impact that has on consumers.
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The gas tax bill would have rolled back 4.3 cents of the federal gas tax for the rest of the year and suspended the entire 18.4-cent tax if average prices exceed $2 a gallon. Lott needed 60 votes to end debate on the bill and move toward final passage.

Unfortunately, they still miss the point. Anyone who knows anything about economics knows that OPEC will eventually increase their output, secretly and one country at a time, because they're greedy. Lowering the tax will only help OPEC and the corporate oil distributors, the savings will not get passed on to the consumers.

Yes, we're too dependent on foreign oil. But the truth is that we're too dependent on oil, period. The answer is to stop driving that SUV to work, and take public transportation instead.