Obama’s Next (Last?) Chance To Show Presidential Leadership
One of the truly surprising things about our president is his seeming inability to jump in front of a wave that’s already peaking. He failed to do this early this year when he let the Republicans extend the Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy, though the public clearly wanted them ended. He did it again, big time, when he caved to the Tea Party House members in negotiations over the debt ceiling, at a time when an overwhelming majority of Americans in every poll indicated they wished increased taxes on the wealthy to be part of any debt ceiling agreement.
Comes the end of September, Mr. Obama will have yet another soft pitch thrown his way. Grover N. and his boys in the House of Representatives seem likely to oppose extension of the 18.4 cent-a-gallon federal tax which funds road, highway and public transportation systems around the country. As the New York Times pointed out in an editorial today, a sensible thing to do would be to increase that tax not only to keep our crumbling national infrastructure from crumbling further, but as a jobs producer at a time when jobs, jobs, jobs has become the political mantra du jour.
Here’s what Mr. Obama should do, both to advance a pickup in the economy and in a dramatic fashion to demonstrate leadership on the jobs front: Ask for a modest increase in this tax. Say, yes, it would be painful for drivers to pay more. But it would be more painful if people couldn’t travel safely and quickly on roads and public transit, and this increase, unlike some others, would go directly toward jobs creation in the construction industry.
Failing this gutsy pitch, Mr. Obama might simply demand an extension of the present gas tax for the same reasons. And in either case, he should loudly label Grover and his Tea Party fronts in Congress as the bad guys whose policies would ruin our roads and steal jobs in these desperately job stressed times. He should, in other words, make it clear he is no longer playing the nice guy pushover.
This gas tax extension can be viewed as a truly wonderful political opportunity by the White House. Or yet another chance to think deeply about an issue, compromise, and look again like our nation’s empty suit-in-chief.
Surely, ever the President’s brainy, brain dead advisers will advise him to seize this opportunity with both hands.
Surely.
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4 Responses to “Obama’s Next (Last?) Chance To Show Presidential Leadership”
I assume the idea is that the increased tax will create employment by paying for government road-building projects? But will it not also make all other forms of construction more expensive by increasing costs and reduce hiring in thsoe industries. AND reduce consumer purchasing power because people have less money left over to buy stuff after paying for gas? It’s not obvious to me that this is a net jobs creator.
I expect the crumbling infrastructure is all part of the GOP austerity dream. When enough pain and ruin is achieved then the magic will kick in!
Raising the gas tax would be a pretty obvious break of his promise not to raise taxes on people making under 250K, and would be a huge talking point for his GOP opponent.
There is always the option used by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty in Minnesota: just call the new tax a “usage fee” and then get the additional revenue while still claiming that taxes were never raised. Ta-da! Foolishly impossible promise kept!