Posted on 02/15/2022 11:32:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
As crude oil prices in the US hold above $90 a barrel (driven there in some part ironically by the Biden admin's war rhetoric), with energy analysts at many of the investment banks foresee oil surpassing $100/barrel - or even $120/barrel - in the not-too-distant future, the White House and top Democratic lawmakers are reportedly considering a federal gas tax holiday, in a desperate attempt to alleviate some of the pain consumers are feeling at the pump (and potentially help boost President Biden's rock-bottom approval ratings).
The plan has coalesced just days after a group of vulnerable Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would suspend the gas tax (to the tune of roughly 18 cents per gallon) for the rest of the year. Some believe the price of gasoline will hit $4/barrel by the spring.
Democratic lawmakers are expected to discuss the plan during a lunch on Tuesday. Asked about the proposal, the White House responded that "all options are on the table" while the administration reveals that growing financial burdens.
For now, the White House hasn't offered any official explicit endorsement of the policy as aides debate whether it would really offer any "meaningful relief". Some senior officials also fear the policy might be difficult to end later, since no politician would want to be seen as raising prices.
Rising crude prices and surging demand have both helped to drive prices of gasoline at the pump even higher so far this year: the average price has topped $3.48/gallon last week according to data from AAA.
That's roughly $1 more than the average price from this time last year.
And judging by the current crude and wholesale gasoline prices, retail pump prices are going higher in the next two weeks, no matter what...
American families are facing other financial shocks: Headline inflation climbed 7.5% in January, compared with the same month in 2021, as inflation continued at its most rapid clip in about four decades.
Unsurprisingly, plans for the gas-tax holiday have angered climate change warriors, who are against anything that would encourage the use of fossil fuels (even though fossil fuels are essential to powering most cars and the bulk of the American economy. Even all-electric vehicles like Teslas rely on fossil fuel-burning power plants).
But there are enough Democratic lawmakers in purple states who are concerned about their re-election prospects to make the gas-tax holiday palatable.
The looming risks prompted Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, two Democratic lawmakers facing tough reelection fights, to unveil a bill last week that would suspend the tax until next January. Their backers include Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who similarly face tough midterm contests entering November, when the party’s majority in the House and Senate could be at risk.
Mark Kelly of Arizona plans to pitch his fellow Democratic senators on the plan during a Tuesday luncheon. Following President Biden's release of 50M barrels of crude from the strategic petroleum reserve (which had no lingering effect on the market and did nothing to alleviate the financial pain being borne by various consumers)
And while governors consider gas-tax holidays of their own, there's one notable voice who has denounced a gas-tax holiday as "short-sighted": Harvard's Larry Summers, who angered his fellow Democrats when he (correctly) predicted the inflationary surge that would follow the trillion-dollar COVID recovery packages.
But Larry Summers, a former treasury secretary and top White House economist under prior Democratic administrations, called the idea of a gas tax holiday “short-sighted, ineffective, goofy, and gimmicky.” A high-profile critic of the Biden administration on the issue of inflation, Summers said the policy’s impact is at best unclear because it may boost demand in other parts of the economy.
"It’s terrible policy at a moment we’ve labeled climate change as an existential threat,” Summers added.
Whether it happens, or not, should be decided soon enough.
Over in the UK, the British government has devised a plan to alleviate the financial pressure from surging LNG prices: the government will directly subsidize the heating bills of tens of millions of Britons, thanks to decades of energy policy mismanagement.
Tax free holiday to end day after mid-terms !!
What? Rats will shoot themselves in the foot?
People will figure out just how much they pay in tax on a gallon.
Never been a Democrat anywhere that actually removed or reduced a tax voluntarily.
the problem with these temporary relief schemes is that they end sometime, usually when the opposing Party is in power, so that blame can be weaponized.
Remember the payroll tax reductions?
Yeah, I got an enews letter from one of my two useless senatorettes the other day touting her supporting this genius idear by ass-tro-naught markelly-giffords and being a co-sponsor.. I responded by asking how folks will feel when they crank the tax back up. So far, crickets. Fookin’ idjits.
up a buck and a half and give em .18 off
need to add that savings to the .06 i saved on independence day
So they want to temporarily knock 18 cents a gallon off the price.
Yesterday while driving through SF, I saw gas stations with prices approaching $6 a gallon. Most are in the $5 plus range. Yeah, 18 cents is gonna be a huge difference, not.
First they cause $1.50/gal of pain... then propose 18 cents per gallon of relief... until after the next election.
Yep... it’s a typical Democrat thing.
Sure, just throw some more on the tab for the children to pay off.
Stupid, stupid, stupid idea.
Yes, gas taxes are too high and a burden. So we’ll take a break from them and stop berating you about being a planet-killing, selfish fuel hog. Until you vote for us. Because you’re stupid.
I generally oppose taxes, but out of all federal taxes, I find gas taxes least objectionable. First of all, it forces pretty much everyone to have skin in the game. This ain’t like income taxes where it’s “soak the rich as long as it doesn’t affect me.” Everyone has to pay his fair share.
Plus, it’s not necessarily axiomatic that cutting the gas tax will result in a commensurate drop in the price at the pump. If the current market price is, say, $4.50 per gallon, including tax, and there’s sufficient demand at that price level, there’s a possibility that the market price will stay at $4.50 per gallon will sellers simply increasing their profit margin.
Yet another example to show how out of touch with reality they are.
Hey! Dufus! Why don’t you admit you used an Executive Order to kill the Keystone Pipeline and restrict federal oil leases at Obama’s and Buffet’s urgings and admit that it was a huge, bonehead, mistake, and re-institute them?
Let’s see if virtue signaling states like California will also drop their taxes in cooperation with the Federal tax reduction. Fat chance.
Biden was REALLY STUPID before dementia set in NOW he doesn’t know what the hell is going on, Obama is running the country into the ground just as he did when he was POTUS!! I believe they PUSHED Biden on the country BECAUSE this was their plan, Biden was the only one where Obama could have have his 3rd term Obama was groomed by DAVOS just like Trudeau, Macron, Kingsinger, Patcheye guy, Cheney and the rest!! You mark my words it is going to come out that this virus was released on us deliberately to get rid of Trump, I had my doubts about the hysteria of this virus from day one!! The globalists HAD TO get rid of Trump and I put NOTHING past these bastards!! This virus could have been TAKEN DOWN almost immediately with HCQ, and ivermectin with supplements YET they couldn’t let that happen!! The corruption is SO DEEP I don’t believe it is repairable it is way past the point of no return!! This is NO LONGER a ballot box problem this is a bureaucrat problem and Fauci is a HUGE example!! There are MANY MORE Fauci’s buried in the system!!
States will just jack up the price anyway with their tax to balance things out.
I thought high gas prices were good. That way people would purchase less and it would be good for the “environment.”
Ditto & two thumbs up!!!
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