This Washington Dem Blasted Federal Gas Tax Holidays—Until She Was Up for Reelection
Senator Patty Murray called a gas tax suspension a 'bad idea.' Now, she's on board.
Collin Anderson • June 23, 2022 3:15 pm
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During a non-election year, Washington Democratic senator Patty Murray called a federal gas tax holiday a "bad idea" that may not lower prices at the pump. Now that she's up for reelection, she's on board with the plan.
Murray—who is expected to face Republican triage nurse Tiffany Smiley in November—quietly signed on to Senate Democrats' gas tax suspension bill in late April, more than two months after it was introduced. But in 2008, when Murray was not embroiled in a reelection fight, the Democrat called the policy a "bad idea" that would "deteriorate highway funding."
"She has a firsthand look at what's going on with our transportation systems, our roads and our bridges, and from her perspective, this is a bad idea," then-Murray spokeswoman Alex Glass told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at the time. "There's no guarantee that the plan would result in lower gas prices, but it would deteriorate highway funding."
Murray is far from the only prominent Democrat to express past disapproval toward a gas tax suspension, which President Joe Biden says would "bring down the price of gas and give families just a little bit of relief." In 2008, then-senator Barack Obama—Biden's self-described "best friend"—called the move a politically motivated "gimmick." Many congressional Democrats agree. Oregon congressman Peter DeFazio, for example, said a gas tax holiday would not "give consumers significant relief—if any at all" and would instead "blow a $26 billion hole in the highway trust fund" and kill "tens of thousands of jobs."
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/this-washington-dem-blasted-federal-gas-tax-holidays-until-she-was-up-for-reelection/
