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President Bush, vowing not to wade into the ongoing presidential campaign, refused to either endorse or condemn a proposed gas tax moratorium that would ease the pain at the pump during the peak summer driving season.
At a press conference Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden, Bush was asked twice about the proposed tax break, which two of the three presidential candidates have endorsed, but he responded only that he will “take a look.”
“I’m going to look at everything they proposed,” Bush said of Congress.
Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Democratic challenger Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) have endorsed a gas tax holiday, while Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has not. Obama has said such a move would equate to a “raid” on the national highway fund.
When the positions of the candidates were brought to the president's attention, he shrugged them off, saying again that he would be open to any proposal Congress produces that would alleviate high gas prices.
“What I’m not going to do is jump in the middle of a presidential campaign,” Bush said.
The president did say that “there is no magic wand to wave right now.” |
