Gas Tax Giveaway

[LeeG]

Heck, why not burn it up faster and have less revenue to maintain infrastructure. Maybe kids should get ten lb bags of free candy. Addicts get a couple months worth of their preferred drug. This is as idiotic as a Trump presidency. I’d be surprised if Congrss goes through with it. But I’ve been wrong about so many things.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...iday-decision/

President Biden told reporters Monday that he hopes to make a decision on a potential gas tax holiday “by the end of the week.”
“Yes, I’m considering it,” Biden said.
If he orders a holiday on the federal gasoline tax, it could save consumers up to 18.4 cents per gallon at the pump. Prices have inched above $5 per gallon across the country.
“I hope to have a decision based on the data,” Biden said. He stopped to talk to reporters as he and his family strolled down the beach near his Delaware vacation home.
Under a gas tax holiday, all taxes on the price of gas would be temporarily removed, offering buyers some relief. It does come at a cost — gas taxes fund roads, as Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

[bluedog225]

Dumb pandering. No surprise (from either party).

I did some math not too long ago. Starting from scratch, for a solar installation large enough to power an electric car, excluding the structure, came in about the same price as gas over 10 years at about 10,000 miles a year.

[Paul Pless]

dse
effing populist douche move
wonder what his treasury secretary and fed chair have told him in private?
fwiw, the fed lost the plot about eighteen months ago . . .
fooked i tell ya

[Tom from Rubicon]

fooked i tell ya

Y'all got a fix? Asking for a neighbor.

Tom

[David G]

Anyone know what a sign of desperation looks like precisely?

[Paul Pless]

Y'all got a fix?

pain

our current monetary policy fiasco and investment markets bubbles and commodity inflation was put into motion by trump's economic policies (pouring gas on an already growing economy) at some point the bubbles created by this would have eventually burst; we probably had no choice but to pass multiple stimulus packages during the pandemic further fanning the flames - rich people invested their money (further exacerbating real estate and stock market and currency market bubbles) and poor people spent increasingly larger amounts of money on fewer and fewer goods due to pandemic shortages giving us the beginnings of inflation

there never was gonna be such a thing as transitory or manageable inflation and the fed knew this, the fed should have begun decimal point or quarter point interest rate hikes in open market operations eighteen months ago

further to the above point, what is the fed's #1 mandate? hint, it's not to create an economic environment conducive to investment growth through debt mister alan eff you greenspan

[Paul Pless]

for what it's worth i want to like jerome powell
but this is no time for a poly sci educated lawyer specializing in property rights theory to be fed chief; it was a catastrophe for him to be chief during trump's tenure

janet yellen would be a responsible choice then and now

bernanke, was a wonk public finace rockstar, love that dude, probably the best most responsible most erudite most honest fed chief we've had since volcker and before him martin

[Garret]

Sheesh. It's 100% a political move to give the Dems a chance at maintaining the House & Senate. Avg. American doesn't care about anything except cost of living & right now Biden has singlehandedly ruined the great economy Trump left him.

[Reynard38]

18 cents a gallon. Biden is clearly out of ideas.

[bluedog225]

6681727[/URL]]pain

our current monetary policy fiasco and investment markets bubbles and commodity inflation was put into motion by trump's economic policies (pouring gas on an already growing economy) at some point the bubbles created by this would have eventually burst; we probably had no choice but to pass multiple stimulus packages during the pandemic further fanning the flames - rich people invested their money (further exacerbating real estate and stock market and currency market bubbles) and poor people spent increasingly larger amounts of money on fewer and fewer goods due to pandemic shortages giving us the beginnings of inflation

there never was gonna be such a thing as transitory or manageable inflation and the fed knew this, the fed should have begun decimal point or quarter point interest rate hikes in open market operations eighteen months ago

further to the above point, what is the fed's #1 mandate? hint, it's not to create an economic environment conducive to investment growth through debt mister alan eff you greenspan

[like button]

[LeeG]

Anyone know what a sign of desperation looks like precisely?

That’s exactly what this is.

[LeeG]

18 cents a gallon. Biden is clearly out of ideas.

It’s like emptying your 401k to buy a car, or the SPR to manage price spikes and not actual shortages to be refilled with higher price oil.

[Ted Hoppe]

Biden is toast by the 4th of July. everyone at the family holiday BBQ is going to be talking about gas prices and costs going up, Labor day is going to be the same. November does not look good for many in the house.

[stromborg]

fooked i tell ya


Tom

Couldn't agree more.

$.18/gallon comes out to $3.60 over a 20 gallon fill-up or close to the price a big cup of brewed coffee. Yep, that'll keep the wolves at bay and shoes on the the baby's feet. Meanwhile the roads continue to crumble...

I struggle with how short-sighted my fellow Americans can be. Just what is they expect the President to do? Pull a socialist move like commandeer the oil industry and nationalize it? Big Oil is raking in big profits as their customers whine "Why doesn't the government do something?" while filling up the low-mpg-lifted-mall-crawling-trucks they should have known better than to buy. Welcome to the free market...some days I feel like I'm surrounded by idiots.

[Too Little Time]

pain

rich people invested their money and poor people spent increasingly larger amounts of money on fewer and fewer goods due to pandemic shortages giving us the beginnings of inflation

Despite the poor causing inflation by spending their money, it is always worthwhile to give the poor money.

It is never worthwhile to give the rich money.

A gas tax holiday would be paid for by completely reversing the Trump tax cuts. But too many rich Democrats benefit from them.

[David G]

18 cents a gallon. Biden is clearly out of ideas.

What 'ideas' would you suggest?

The fact is... he's out of options, not ideas. Since gas prices are not controlled by any sitting president, or any administration, nor any one country - he's stuck with the reality of higher prices. And his options for amelioration are extremely limited.

The fact is, sitting presidents get way too much blame, and way too much credit for a variety of economic circumstances. They don't have that much control, plus there's usually a lag time. They can make good decisions early, and maybe see them pay off some later. They can make bad decisions and see the ugliness later. Or they can make catastrophic decisions any time, and sometimes see immediate results. But mostly, it's the next term (his or someone else's)... or later... when the fallout occurs. For better or worse.

[Paul Pless]

Despite the poor causing inflation by spending their money, it is always worthwhile to give the poor money.

It is never worthwhile to give the rich money.

A gas tax holiday would be paid for by completely reversing the Trump tax cuts. But too many rich Democrats benefit from them.

this is a good post

but for i should like to emphasize the poor did not cause inflation, the economic environment at the time made the beginnings of inflation inevitable as soon as stimulus checks began going out

the poor, never have much of a choice but to spend the money as it becomes available

[LeeG]

18 cents a gallon. Biden is clearly out of ideas.

He was playing that populist schtick wrt fuel prices a long time ago. So even though gasoline is subsidized to a slight degree making the transition to less oil intensive transportation more dificult he’ll still play lip service to the plight of the working man struggling to fill his F150 commuter vehicle

[Ted Hoppe]

Despite the poor causing inflation by spending their money, it is always worthwhile to give the poor money.

It is never worthwhile to give the rich money.

A gas tax holiday would be paid for by completely reversing the Trump tax cuts. But too many rich Democrats benefit from them.

+2. agreed.

[LeeG]

What 'ideas' would you suggest?

The fact is... he's out of options, not ideas. Since gas prices are not controlled by any sitting president, or any administration, nor any one country - he's stuck with the reality of higher prices. And his options for amelioration are extremely limited.

The fact is, sitting presidents get way too much blame, and way too much credit for a variety of economic circumstances. They don't have that much control, plus there's usually a lag time. They can make good decisions early, and maybe see them pay off some later. They can make bad decisions and see the ugliness later. Or they can make catastrophic decisions any time, and sometimes see immediate results. But mostly, it's the next term (his or someone else's)... or later... when the fallout occurs. For better or worse.

Well there’s the idea of acknowledging reality but that means abandoning many of our non-partisan myths of American exceptionalism.

[David W Pratt]

Wasn't one of his campaign planks reducing gasoline consumption?

[Garret]

You guys are still completely missing the point. Joe Amurica is freaked at $5.09 at the pump. If Biden announces he's dropping it to $4.89 - he'll get big points with all the folks who pay attention to nothing but prices - the folks who believe it's Biden's fault that the prices are where they are.

Rail against it if you want the Republicans to be able to attack him on this, but Biden being able to say "I've done all I legally can" defuses the complaints to a point.

Is is sound monetary policy? Of course not - but I'm in favor of doing everything possible to blunt Rep. attacks.

[LeeG]

Couldn't agree more.

$.18/gallon comes out to $3.60 over a 20 gallon fill-up or close to the price a big cup of brewed coffee. Yep, that'll keep the wolves at bay and shoes on the the baby's feet. Meanwhile the roads continue to crumble...

I struggle with how short-sighted my fellow Americans can be. Just what is they expect the President to do? Pull a socialist move like commandeer the oil industry and nationalize it? Big Oil is raking in big profits as their customers whine "Why doesn't the government do something?" while filling up the low-mpg-lifted-mall-crawling-trucks they should have known better than to buy. Welcome to the free market...some days I feel like I'm surrounded by idiots.

Oh those roads will get minimal repairs using the national credit card on the federal side and individual states taxing as necessary. The states can’t run a deficit but the federal gov’t can. That’s something the Grover Norquist fiscally conservative Republicans counted on which is why the fed fuel tax stopped being updated 29 yrs ago while state taxes were adjusted as necessary. The fed fuel tax should be about 15 cents more to keep up w inflation and about ten more cents to address the decay. Which still isn’t enough to change behavior or vehicle choices. But that’s ok, my fella Muricans can make their own beds to lay in.

Obama’s Sec of Energy really put his foot into the muck of American entitlement when he said US fuel prices should be closer to Europe’s. He was quietly muffled after that because it is not allowed to acknowledge we share the same wells as them foreigners. We have special American oil that liberals and Democrats were keeping middle America from enjoying! Infinite oil from the Permian Basin in Texass.

[LeeG]

You guys are still completely missing the point. Joe Amurica is freaked at $5.09 at the pump. If Biden announces he's dropping it to $4.89 - he'll get big points with all the folks who pay attention to nothing but prices - the folks who believe it's Biden's fault that the prices are where they are.

Rail against it if you want the Republicans to be able to attack him on this, but Biden being able to say "I've done all I legally can" defuses the complaints to a point.

Is is sound monetary policy? Of course not - but I'm in favor of doing everything possible to blunt Rep. attacks.

Except like releasing from the SPR or pleading w Saudi Arabia while sanctioning Russia, Iran and Venezuela that 18 cent drop could evaporate in a few weeks then “doing everything he can” becomes another ineffectual effort to supporting American delusions. Supporting delusions is best done the way Trump did it. Pure, mindless gas lighting.

[David G]

You guys are still completely missing the point. Joe Amurica is freaked at $5.09 at the pump. If Biden announces he's dropping it to $4.89 - he'll get big points with all the folks who pay attention to nothing but prices - the folks who believe it's Biden's fault that the prices are where they are.

Rail against it if you want the Republicans to be able to attack him on this, but Biden being able to say "I've done all I legally can" defuses the complaints to a point.

Is is sound monetary policy? Of course not - but I'm in favor of doing everything possible to blunt Rep. attacks.

Agreed

[Ted Hoppe]

At the marina yesterday in alameda, a liberal democratic bastion of American prosperity.

C07C5528-4AB8-4ACC-99EF-301F2242E514.jpg

[LeeG]

Wasn't one of his campaign planks reducing gasoline consumption?

Sure, and he’ll do it with magic unicorn dust whereby prices stay low but people won’t consume more because they’re now driving around in F150 electric super trucks! That’s another popular delusion, we’ll reduce fossil fuel consumption with less expensive alternatives and call it peak demand. Because everyone has $45k to get the latest EV. Or $75k for a long range EV.
There’s no upside for Biden to promote inconvenient facts.

[LeeG]

At the marina yesterday in alameda, a liberal democratic bastion of American prosperity.

C07C5528-4AB8-4ACC-99EF-301F2242E514.jpg

You mean there are stupid people in the Bay Area as well? Down here it’s magic markers right on the pump. There’s a family from somewhere in the Indian subcontinent who own nearly all the gas stations in town. I sure hope they don’t get some negative attention for gas prices, but as long as it’s Biden’s fault they’re safe.

[AlanMc]

.18/gal... with those kind of ideas it's no wonder he was the most popular candidate ever.

[Paul Pless]

Oh those roads will get minimal repairs using the national credit card on the federal side and individual states taxing as necessary. The states can’t run a deficit but the federal gov’t can. That’s something the Grover Norquist fiscally conservative Republicans counted on which is why the fed fuel tax stopped being updated 29 yrs ago while state taxes were adjusted as necessary. The fed fuel tax should be about 15 cents more to keep up w inflation and about ten more cents to address the decay. Which still isn’t enough to change behavior or vehicle choices. But that’s ok, my fella Muricans can make their own beds to lay in.

Obama’s Sec of Energy really put his foot into the muck of American entitlement when he said US fuel prices should be closer to Europe’s. He was quietly muffled after that because it is not allowed to acknowledge we share the same wells as them foreigners. We have special American oil that liberals and Democrats were keeping middle America from enjoying! Infinite oil from the Permian Basin in Texass.

he aint gonna drop it to $4.89 a gallon
gas is priced at world commodity prices
the oil companies will simply absorb that eighteen cents as theirs

we dont need no stinking populism
the world economies, world energy policies, and climate are all in crisis
what we need is honesty and thoughtfulness and consistency and long range thinking
that joe is angling towards populism is worrisome
the more so because he's gonna get played by the right

[Garret]

he aint gonna drop it to $4.89 a gallon
gas is priced at world commodity prices
the oil companies will simply absorb that eighteen cents as theirs

we dont need no stinking populism
the world economies, world energy policies, and climate are all in crisis
what we need is honesty and thoughtfulness and consistency and long range thinking
that joe is angling towards populism is worrisome
the more so because he's gonna get played by the right

Of course that's what we need. How're we gonna get it?

[Joe (SoCal)]

6DA873C7-F8F2-4476-B6B5-EB92F4C69A1E.jpeg

[LeeG]

Of course that's what we need. How're we gonna get it?

When there’s no other option.

[Joe (SoCal)]

How about taxing Oil Companies record profits more and then using that tax as a gas refund to the public.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) surges +6.9% in Tuesday's trading, on pace for its largest percent gain since November 2020, after taking a stake in Qatar's $29B gas expansion project and Credit Suisse upgraded its rating on the shares to Outperform from Neutral with a $125 price target.

[Joe (SoCal)]

I Did That
3082650B-6ADF-4E29-8F99-A004AEABE7C2.jpg

I’m gonna print stickers of all the Oil Companies CEO’s with the “I Did That” slogan