The Reviews Are Scathing for Biden’s Gasoline Tax Plan
Author: Greg Valliere
June 22, 2022
THERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY THIS IS A BAD IDEA, but the major flaw is that it has very little chance of winning enactment. Republicans are dismissive of the idea and Democrats are divided.
AMONG THE FLAWS: The energy industry may pocket the money; the $10 billion cost is not paid for; Democrats from Nancy Pelosi to Barack Obama (in 2008) have called it a gimmick; there’s nothing to address the big issue — refinery capacity; and an 18 cents per gallon tax break may be viewed as trivial.
ASSUMING BIDEN ACTUALLY INTRODUCES THIS PLAN at 2 p.m., it will then go to Congress, which has an enormous work load and dwindling time this summer and fall. The gasoline proposal may not even be debated in either house.
NOT TO PILE ON, BUT WE HAVE TO WONDER who signed off on this plan at the White House. Biden has been mulling over the idea for weeks; he must have known that it would get a lukewarm reaction, at best.
IF BIDEN’S PLAN LOOKS DEAD ON ARRIVAL this week, the blame game inevitably will focus on White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain. With the Biden Administration in free-fall, a housecleaning seems likely.
PERHAPS BIDEN WILL CHANGE THE SUBJECT by the end of the week with a student loan relief bill, or perhaps he will lift some tariffs on U.S. trading partners. It’s unlikely that he can sell the gasoline proposal as a tax cut for hard-hit consumers.
WITH BIDEN FALLING OFF HIS BICYCLE over the weekend and now facing derision over this poorly vetted gasoline plan, the comparisons to Jimmy Carter’s failed presidency will increase. Carter was decisively defeated in his bid for re-election.
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