Allentown, PA — Despite acknowledging that a gas tax holiday is not a “panacea” for the rising fuel costs, Sen. John McCain again called on Sen. Barack Obama to support what he calls a “nice little break” for the American people Wednesday.

“I noticed again that Senator Obama refuses to endorse a gas tax holiday for Americans, despite the fact that he voted for it several times when the price of gas was about a dollar and a half a gallon,” McCain said during a media availability today. “Is this a panacea? Is this addressing our dependence on foreign oil? The rising costs of gasoline in America? Of course not. But it’s a nice little break for Americans, particularly lower income Americans who generally speaking drive further and drive older cars, which then increases their cost at the gas pump.”

The holiday will save the average American driver about $30 this summer according to some estimates and critics have called it a pander, but McCain was adamant about his support Wednesday.

He also noted that today’s economic figures, which show slight growth, did little to change his view of the American economy. McCain has previously indicated that the country may be in a recession.

“Perhaps there was some small growth as far as statistics are concerned. I don’t think that that helps Americans any,” McCain said. “American families are hurting, they are having difficulties staying in their homes. More than 250,000 of them have lost their jobs and we need to act and we need a plan of action and I have that.”

Barack Obama continued to rail against John McCain’s proposed gas tax holiday, which just yesterday he called a “scheme.” Today in Wilson, NC, he brought in Hillary Clinton to his riff, saying, “they both, I think, are saying the same thing.”

“Let me explain to you that the gas tax is what pays for our highway trust fund to rebuild our roads and our bridges. If we don’t have that money then roads and bridges wont be repaired, which means folks in North Carolina won’t be working this summer,” he explained [Hillary Clinton has maintained her plan is revenue neutral, and would be paid for by windfall profits from oil companies].

“But not only that, you know how much you’d save under John McCain’s plan? $25. Maybe 30. 25 or $30. That’s his plan to help folks dealing with gas prices,” he said. The federal gas tax is about $.18.4 per gallon, so if you fill up a 15-gallon tank twice a week each of the 12 weeks of summer, the grand total would come out to about $66 - a little more than Obama’s projection.

But Obama says the problem shouldn’t be tackled with a short term fix. “This is typical of what Washington does. You got an emergency, people are getting crushed. People are having a tough time, and instead of really trying to solve the problem you use a gimmick,” he said.

“Where’s John McCain been for the last 25 years?” Obama asked. “What has he been doing to promote clean energy and to increase fuel efficiency standards, to develop alternative energies like bio diesel that could put people back to work?”

The McCain campaign was quick with a response tonight, pointing out that Obama himself supported a similar gas tax relief measure in the Illinois state senate in 2000, and that although he says he’d stand up to oil execs, he voted for the 2005 Energy Bill on several occasions. “Unprepared leadership makes promises and fails to deliver,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Obama has admitted in the past that under his administration, gas prices would not be reduced overnight.