<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656335786572,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000163-45df-dc46-adfb-cdff9a380000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656335786572,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000163-45df-dc46-adfb-cdff9a380000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
$bp("Brid_56335636", {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1035024"}); ","_id":"00000181-a54e-d447-ad8b-f5ce58cd0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe White House is urging a number of Republicans who have pressed to suspend or eliminate federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel to sign on to President Joe Biden’s proposed gas tax holiday.
Biden is calling on Congress to pass legislation staying federal gas taxes through the end of the summer in an effort to pass down savings to consumers. The federal gas taxes funnel into the Highway Trust Fund, and White House officials have said the $10 billion in lost revenue from the tax holiday could be offset by deficit cuts overseen by the administration in 2021.
BIDEN GAS TAX HOLIDAY: HOW IT WOULD WORK AND WHO WOULD BENEFIT
The measure would require 10 Republican votes to pass the Senate, and at least seven sitting Republican senators have previously introduced legislation decreasing federal gas taxes in some capacity.
“The president knows working families are struggling with Putin’s price hike. That’s why he’s fighting to build on the historic actions he has taken to lower gas prices with a gas tax holiday. His proposal has earned bipartisan support across the country,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told the Washington Examiner. “It’s unfortunate that Republicans, including many who’ve supported this exact policy before, claim on TV that they’ve never met a tax cut they didn’t like but are suddenly opposed to a significant tax benefit for working people that will spare them financial pain at the pump. They need to put families first, not subject them to more hardship for the sake of political games.”
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Mike Lee (R-UT) co-sponsored a bill in 2018 that reduced the federal gas tax from 18.4 cents per gallon to 3.7 cents per gallon for a period of four years. Rubio introduced a similar measure in 2015 while running for president that sought to repeal the Davis-Bacon Act and “phase out” the Mass Transit Account, collective actions that would have cut federal gas taxes by 80%.
In 2008, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Richard Burr (R-NC), and Roger Wicker (R-MS) co-sponsored a bill with the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that proposed suspending federal gas taxes from May 26 to Sept. 1 of that year. Like Biden’s proposal, the bill also would also push “transportation motor fuels producers and other dealers [to] take necessary actions to reduce fuel prices to reflect such reduction in taxes.”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) introduced a bill in 2006 that would suspend federal gas taxes for the spring and summer and proposed “dollar for dollar” recouping the lost revenue by simultaneously suspending tax credits supplied to oil companies “until the federal treasury and Highway Trust Fund are reimbursed.”
Furthermore, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) expressed some openness to suspending federal gas taxes shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
“I think we’ve got to look at all those things,” he said on the topic of a gas tax holiday in early March. “I think we have to look at every tax and fee we have and say what’s necessary and what’s not necessary. How can we reduce the cost of living to American citizens? But here’s what doesn’t work: What doesn’t work is not starting down that path. We’ve got to figure out how to be energy independent.”
Two other high-profile Republicans have already taken action this year to reduce gas taxes within their respective states.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a tax relief bill into law in May 2022. That legislation included declaring all of October a gas tax holiday, cutting the price of gas by 25.3 cents per gallon.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and other California Republicans began pressuring Gov. Gavin Newsom in March to suspend California’s state gas taxes for six months. He and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) also supported a 2018 proposition that would have entirely repealed California’s gas taxes, with each of their campaigns respectively donating $300,000 and $25,000.
Nearly all of the aforementioned Republicans have criticized Biden’s gas tax proposal since its introduction in late June.
Thune claimed Biden’s proposal is “very gimmicky,” and he questioned if it would “have any real impact” on the burden gas prices are placing on the public.
“A ‘gas tax holiday’ is a complete gimmick,” Cruz similarly tweeted. “Unleashing American energy is the real solution.”
Rubio called Biden’s plan “stupid” and suggested that the “small savings will create more demand of the same limited supply & actually lead to higher prices.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Lee also claimed the tax holiday would “spike inflation even more,” adding that Biden’s proposal is “treacherous.”
Wicker, in turn, claimed that “a gas tax holiday would do next to nothing to relieve the pain Americans are feeling at the pump, which is a direct result of this administration’s war on American energy.”
