Jonathan Alter: Why Gas-Tax Holiday Won't Work | Newsweek Scope

FACTCHECK.ORG
Our Disinformed Electorate
12/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
More than half of U.S. adults (52 percent) said the claim that Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan would raise taxes on most small businesses is truthful, when in fact only a small percentage would see any increase.
CAMPAIGN 2008
Gas Price Fixes that Won't
Justin Bank 5/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
President Bush took another tack, dusting off a couple of golden oldies that he said would help halt the escalation in motorists' costs: allowing companies to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and encouraging construction of more refineries.
Political Pandering
Jonathan Alter 4/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
Hillary Clinton has now joined John McCain in proposing the most irresponsible policy idea of the year—an idea that actually could aid the terrorists. What's worse, both of them know that suspending the federal gas tax this summer is a terrible pander, and yet they're pushing it anyway for crass political advantage.
CAMPAIGN 2008
Bogus Claims in Boca
Viveca Novak 1/25/2008 12:00:00 AM
In last night's debate, held days before Tuesday's Republican primary in the Sunshine State, the remaining GOP candidates came up with a few new factual distortions and repeated several old ones. Among them:
BY THE NUMBERS
Promises, Promises

Presidential candidates vow daily to enact (pricey) legislation that will usher in an era of peace, prosperity and guilt-free eating. And while their most earnest vows often come a cropper after the transition from campaigning to governing (remember President Clinton's stimulus package and universal-health-care plan?), it's worth looking at the costs of such pledges. President George W. Bush, who promised a massive tax cut, pursued it with single-mindedness once in office. NEWSWEEK crunches the numbers on the top candidates' top priorities:
The $3 Trillion Cop-Out
Robert J. Samuelson
The $3.1 trillion budget submitted last week by President Bush with a projected $407 billion deficit for 2009 reminds us of the huge gap between uplifting political rhetoric—including the rhetoric of this campaign—and the grim realities of governing. Budgets are not just numbers. They express political choices. What should government do and who should pay? The reigning philosophy, practiced by both parties and largely approved by the public, is to evade choices. It is to spend more, tax less and deplore deficits. For most Americans, what matters most are their own tax breaks and government benefits and not the budget's larger effects on society.