An article on the Washinton Post's website today shows that Senator Obama is the only one of the three presidential candidates who has seen first hand what repealing a gas tax for any amount of time can do. As an Illinois state senator, he helped pass a six month repeal of the state's 5% gas tax in 2001. During that six month period, the state lost $175 million in revenue. The overall average price of gas only fell 3% during that time, which means that in real terms, the gas prices still went up 2%. The tax repeal just didn't work.
This puts Obama on even more solid footing when it comes to opposing McCain's foolish plan. Illinois is suffering from a major budget crunch all around, but especially when it comes to infrastructure. That extra money that the gas companies ended up keeping back in 2001 would be mighty helpful right about now. Let's make sure that we as a nation don't end up with the same problem.
Interestingly, last night NBC Nightly News began a series of reports on the nation's crumbling infrastructure. You can see the video here.
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