Paul Coverdell: “I thank the majority whip, the distinguished Senator from Mississippi, for the contributions he has made to this debate…”

“I thank the majority whip, the distinguished Senator from Mississippi, for the contributions he has made to this debate, laying it out, underscoring the pressures that this tax has put on the American working family. Just as an aside, the third paragraph of the letter that was referred to by the Senator from Idaho a few moments ago is very interesting. It has been printed for the Record but I want to underscore it: Based on the average trucker purchasing 14,000 gallons per year of diesel fuel, it is estimated that a repeal of the 4.3 cents per gallon tax will save trucking companies $600 per vehicle per year. Across the board--we have been talking about what it means to the average family. We have seen figures from $50-plus to nearly $200 per year that the average working family will save, that will stay in their checking account instead of being sent to the Treasury. But the thing we have not heard a great deal about is that when you lower the cost to operate that truck $600 per year, when you lower the cost to operate the sales fleet thousands of dollars, when you lower the cost of every form of public transportation--of jet fuel, taxicab gasoline, the public bus--what happens is throughout the economy the costs come down so the consumer will ultimately save, not only their own direct costs, which is what we have heard so much about, but the indirect saving. Somewhere down the line the cost of goods is less. It does not cost as much to ship the jar of peanut butter.…”