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-- Juliet Eilperin and Michael D. Shear
DEATH TO A HOLIDAY?
Pelosi Criticizes Gas Tax Proposal
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lent her name yesterday to the growing chorus of Democrats opposed to a gasoline tax holiday proposed by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain.
Pelosi (Calif.), who is neutral in her party's nominating contest, said that Congress will not consider a suspension of the 18-cent federal gas tax.
"There is no reason to believe any moratorium on the gas tax will be passed on to consumers. That's first and foremost. Second, it will defeat everything we've tried to do to lower the cost of oil," Pelosi said, noting that Democrats have been trying to shift the nation to alternative fuel sources, not promote gasoline consumption.
Sen. Barack Obama has ridiculed the proposed tax suspension, saying that the savings for drivers would be minimal.
At an event in Jeffersonville, Ind., hours after Pelosi's comments, Clinton said that she believes "it is important to get every member of Congress on the record. Do they stand with hard-pressed Americans who are trying to pay their gas bills at the gas station, or do they once again stand with the big oil companies? That's a vote I'm going to try to get, because I want to know where they stand and I want them to tell us -- are they with us or against us?"
On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Congress's Democratic leadership has no intention of providing a tax holiday. "A suspension of the tax would not be positive," Hoyer said. "The oil companies would just raise their prices."
SUNDAY DVR ALERT
Obama on NBC, Clinton on ABC
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will duel on competing Sunday-morning political talk shows.
Obama will appear on NBC's "Meet the Press," while Clinton will be on ABC's "This Week." Clinton will take questions from host George Stephanopoulos, who helped run her husband's first presidential campaign, as well as from members of the studio audience and from voters in North Carolina via satellite. Both shows will be taped from Indianapolis.
