GOP Calls On Lautenberg, Andrews To Support Gas Tax Relief

--NJ Families and Businesses Need McCain’s Summer Gas Tax Holiday—

Trenton, NJ -- New Jersey Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson issued the following statement today:

“Rising gas prices are stressing the finances of New Jersey families and threatening our summer tourism industry. John McCain’s plan to suspend the gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day will result in an immediate eighteen cent reduction in prices and give our families some much needed help. Senator McCain’s proposal will help lower the cost of gas and diesel fuel. That means lower costs for drivers and also lower costs for food and other consumer goods that depend on trucks to get those products to stores.

Tourism is the second biggest industry in New Jersey and summer tourism depends on people getting in their car and driving to our beaches, parks and attractions. If it costs too much to get there, people won’t go and that will have a horrific ripple effect on a state economy that has been devastated by massive Democrat tax hikes. A summer gas tax holiday isn’t just good for families, it’s critical to the economy of New Jersey.

The Democrats who control Congress – Senator Lautenberg, Congressman Andrews among them – need to step up and make it clear that New Jersey’s economy is more important than presidential campaign politics. Senator Clinton has signaled a willingness to support John McCain’s proposal, while Senator Obama has flatly rejected it. Oddly, Senator Obama, citing the ‘huge hike” in gas prices in 2000, supported a gas tax holiday as an Illinois legislator. Now he’s playing politics instead of doing what’s right.

Our Democratic Senators and Congressmen need to make it clear whether they support John McCain’s call for much needed gas tax relief. All of them talk about tax relief for the middle class. The gas tax takes a big bite out of the paycheck of a middle class New Jersey family. John McCain’s gas tax holiday will provide real relief, real quick.”