More Than 200 Economists Denounce Clinton, McCain Gas-Tax Plans 2008-05-05 13:35 (New York) By Brian Faler May 5 (Bloomberg) -- More than 200 economists, including four Nobel prize winners, signed a petition rejecting proposals by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain to offer a gas-tax holiday. Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz, former Congressional Budget Office Director Alice Rivlin and 2007 Nobel winner Roger Myerson are among those who signed the letter calling proposals to temporarily lift the tax a bad idea. Another is Richard Schmalensee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was member of President George H.W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. The moratorium would mostly benefit oil companies while increasing the federal budget deficit and reducing funding for the government highway maintenance trust fund, the economists said. ``Suspending the federal tax on gasoline this summer is a bad idea, and we oppose it,'' the petition says. Economist Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution is among those circulating the letter and said most signers are economists. Aaron said that while he supports Obama, the list includes Republicans and Clinton supporters. The gas-tax suspension has become a flashpoint in the race for the Democrat presidential nomination between New York Senator Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Clinton and Republican McCain tout the proposal as an example of their concern for struggling middle-class families. Obama calls the idea a ``gimmick,'' rejecting it on similar grounds as the economists. Proposal Rebuffed Obama's opposition shows he is ``somebody who just doesn't seem to understand that middle-class families are hurting,'' Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said yesterday. Clinton yesterday dismissed economists' objections to the plan. ``I'm not going to put my lot in with economists,'' she said in an interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. ``We would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively.'' The proposal has been rebuffed by House Democratic leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts. The environmental group Friends of the Earth endorsed Obama over the weekend and called Clinton and McCain's moratorium proposals ``sham solutions that won't ease the pain at the pump.'' Rivlin, who headed the CBO before running the White House budget office during the Clinton administration, was among the Clinton backers signing the petition. ``I don't have to agree with everything she says, and I think she was wrong on this one,'' Rivlin said in an interview today. ``If anything, we need higher gas taxes.'' *T Related news: For more on the candidates and the gas tax: {TNI ELECT GAS } For more on the campaign in Indiana: {TNI ELECT IN } For more on the campaign in North Carolina: {TNI ELECT NC } *T --Editors: Bill Arthur, Brigitte Greenberg. To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Faler in Washington at +1-202-624-1919 or bfaler@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Forsythe at +1-202-624-1940 or mforsythe@bloomberg.net. [TAGINFO] NI CNG NI EXE NI ELECT NI GOV NI POL NI DC NI US NI DCAA NI GASOLINE NI ERG NI REF NI TAX NI TRE #<610526.2915987.1.0.77.20164.25># -0- May/05/2008 17:35 GMT