As frustration with Biden grows, Top Democrats revolt
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — “I’m going to look at it, certainly. The president's trying to do what I think is a good objective – what I’m not sure of, in fact, is that it will have the intended effect, and whether it will save consumers money,” said Maryland Democrat Cong. Steny Hoyer, who as House Majority Leader is the second ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives after Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, has characterized Biden's idea – which would have to be passed by Congress in order actually suspend the 18.4 cents per gallon Federal Gas Tax drivers pay at the pump – as a public relations stunt.
What Hoyer (at far right with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,) and other Democrat House leaders have advocated for, in fact, is a revision of the 1980s-like "Windfall Profits Tax" on "big oil" – which even many Democrats understand is a losing proposition in an Election Year environment that is already going south for the party.Even Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat from Joe Biden's home state who chairs the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, labeled the proposal “shortsighted and inefficient.”
“I’m glad that @POTUS is exploring ways to lower gas prices at the pump,” tweeted the Delaware Democrat.
“Still, suspending the primary way we pay for infrastructure projects on our roads is a shortsighted and – inefficient way to provide relief.
"We should explore other options for lowering energy costs,” Carper said.
“Still, suspending the primary way we pay for infrastructure projects on our roads is a shortsighted and – inefficient way to provide relief.
"We should explore other options for lowering energy costs,” Carper said.
Telegraphing the seriousness of the battle that's growing within the Democrat Party, even before Biden officially announced his proposal Wednesday afternoon, virtually every member of the Democrat's House leadership team had rushed to condemn his effort at trying to appear take action that could ease American's pain at the pump.
Congressman Peter DeFazio, an long-serving Oregon Democrat who as chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee was rather publicly ignored by the Biden White House during last year's Infrastruction Bill negotiations, said it was a “well-intentioned, but ill-conceived policy.”
“I urge my colleagues to see this for what it is: a short-sighted proposal that relies on the cooperation of oil companies to pass on miniscule savings to consumers,” said the Oregon Democrat (below.)
Such opposition on Capitol Hill from within the president’s own party, especially the House's Congressional leadership, offered at best a reality check for the White House, and at worst could represent the first of many public rebukes of Biden's leadership capabilities, which party leaders believe are imperiling individual Senate & House races in virtually every state across the country.Mr. Biden‘s proposal includes a three-month suspension of the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline, as well as the 24-cent-per-gallon tax on diesel fuel. It also urge states to pause their gas taxes, some of which are higher than the federal rate.
Because the Biden White House has estimated its three-month "tax holiday" would cost the federal government approximately $10 billion in tax revenues, it was also forced to try and dispell Democrat legislator's concerns about filling the void with “other revenues.”
Ahead of the White House's official announcement, Biden Administration officials conceded that a tax holiday “won’t fix the problem,” but argued doing something was better than continuing to do nothing.
“President Biden understands that a gas tax holiday alone will not, on its own, relieve the run-up in costs that we’ve seen,” read a White House "fact sheet" detailing the proposal.
“But the president believes that at this unique moment, when the war in Ukraine is imposing costs on American families, Congress should do what it can to provide working families breathing room.”
“But the president believes that at this unique moment, when the war in Ukraine is imposing costs on American families, Congress should do what it can to provide working families breathing room.”
Republicans and industry associations representing the oil and gas industries joined Congressional Democrats in criticizing Mr. Biden's proposal as well, saying the party's liberal climate policies were to blame for the nation's record gas prices.
“This ineffective administration’s big new idea is a silly proposal that senior members of their own party have already shot down well in advance,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican.While numerous states have already considered such a move, only four – Maryland, Georgia, Connecticut & New York – have implemented it. Florida has approved a one-month state gas tax suspension, which is scheduled to occur in October.
