Candidates weigh in on gas tax

GREENVILLE, N.C., May 5 (UPI) -- A possible gas tax holiday is either a little bit of relief or a little bit of politicking, depending on which Democratic U.S. presidential candidate speaks.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., spoke for a summertime federal gas tax holiday on CBS' "Early Morning" Monday, saying it would be offset by taxing oil companies.

"You know, it really stuns me that there is all this opposition to taking a responsible position of trying to lift the gas tax, have the oil companies pay it out of their record profits, investigate the market manipulators who are driving the price of oil up, go after OPEC, and let out some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," she said.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" a similar tax relief program was tried in Illinois while he was in the state Legislature, and "it did not help ordinary people."

"And that's why, (I'm concerned) when I hear people pretending that they're providing some relief, where at best you get 30 cents a day for $28, but more likely the oil companies would jack up prices to match whatever the elimination of the gas tax was," he said. "I think that it is not an honest solution."