From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Oil prices, politics, and life in America.

Hello again, I'm Warren Olney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Oil prices are very much on the rise, but gasoline has not yet caught up. When it does, $4 a gallon may sound

like the good old days. President Bush says there's no magic wand for the government, but the

candidates to replace him have other ideas. McCain and Clinton won a summer holiday from the

federal gasoline tax. Obama calls

that a gimmick that could make matters worse. On to the point, we'll look at their different

proposals. Should gasoline taxes actually be higher to encourage conservation, something they all

support? Is this just the beginning of painful adjustments to new global realities?

Our reporter's notebook later on is the terrorist watch list out of control.

Here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation

and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Mormon-Aulney, back with To the Point. Gasoline prices have jumped almost 14 cents in the past week, as if you didn't know it.

The profits of Exxon Mobil rose 17% in the past year to $10.9 billion.

On To the Point, President Bush says the government's hands are tied,

but McCain, Obama, and Clinton are debating what Washington might do. Is it time for a summer

vacation from the gasoline tax? Should it be even higher? So people will drive less. What about a

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