Right Then, Right Now: Obama Quote on Gas Tax Suspension Focus of New Ad Campaign

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) –  “We’re arguing over a gimmick that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say they did something. Well, let me tell you, this isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer, it’s designed to get them through an election.”

So declared then presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama in spring 2008 responding to a federal gas tax suspension proposal supported by both fellow Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.

Obama’s views are at the heart of a new paid social media ad campaign launched March 2 by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) to demonstrate the folly of recent congressional efforts to suspend the 18.4-cents-per gallon tax.

Legislation introduced Feb. 9 by six Senate Democrats facing re-election this fall proposes to suspend the gas tax through the end of 2022 to address increased pump prices. A companion measure was introduced Feb. 18 by House Democrats.

ARTBA says the bills threaten to unravel the revenue structure and transportation funding levels in the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), signed into law last November by President Joe Biden.

A June 2020 Transportation Investment Advocacy Center analysis of more than 100 adjustments – increases and decreases – to state gasoline taxes found little, if any, lasting effect on what consumers pay at the pump.

The ads on Twitter and Facebook target members of Congress and their staffs inside the D.C. beltway.

About ARTBA
Established in 1902, Washington, D.C.-based ARTBA is the consensus voice of the U.S. transportation design and construction industry before Congress, federal agencies, the White House, news media and the general public.