It's a fact: Kerry raised gas taxes before

The latest installment of John Kerry’s DBunker section is an unmitigated mess. It’s just a baffling collection of spurious and contradictory statements on the issue of rising gas prices. It would take me pages to unravel all the false assumptions and outright lies, but let me try to cut the Gordian knot here and summarize the DBunker allegations:

Dick Cheney met with energy executives and conspired to raise gasoline prices during an election year to hurt the re-election prospects for a pro-energy President. This same President has too much pride to beg Saudi Arabia to pump out more oil (and after they’ve been such good allies in the war on terror!) As a result, Americans now face a “tax” in the form of higher gas prices.

John Kerry, on the other hand, is not ashamed to kiss the feet of the Saudis. (Hijackers? What hijackers?) And he’ll tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, reserved for wartime, because we’re not in a war – free oil for everyone! Of course, neither of these actions reduces our dependence on foreign oil but that’s OK because we’re all going to drive hybrid cars.

It’s…let’s say “interesting”…to characterize a price increase on a commodity as a “tax increase.” But there’s only one candidate in this race who has unquestionably voted in favor of high gasoline taxes: John Kerry. As noted here, Kerry voted for a BTU tax and a 4.3 cents-per-gallon increase in federal gas taxes. Also, in 1994, Kerry told the Boston Globe that he supported for a 50-cent increase in the gas tax; this would cost the average family over $600 per year.

Take it from John Kerry – a man who knows how to keep taxes high – that’s a tax.

Extra: See how much Kerry’s 50-cent tax could cost you with this handy calculator.

[Cross-posted on Blogs for Bush]