Democrats in Washington will seemingly do anything to help lower gas prices – except use the most effective tool: actually increasing the fuel supply.
As The Free Press reported on Monday, the White House toyed with the idea of having the IRS send everyone gas cards. But House Democrats rejected that plan, saying it would be expensive and not work – two traits that have never seemed to stop Washington before.
Nonetheless, CNSNews.com now reports what House Democrats have in mind to cut the cost of gas.
An old standby: stimulus checks.
A trio of House Democrats recently filed the Gas Rebate Act of 2022. The sponsors include Reps. Mike Thompson of California, John Larson of Connecticut, and Lauren Underwood of Illinois.
According to CNSNews, the bill would provide Americans $100 a month and $100 per dependent for the rest of the year in any month where the national average price of gas rises above $4 a gallon.
People would qualify immediately, as according to AAA on Wednesday, the national average price was $4.24 a gallon
Yes, better for D.C. to just cut checks than send gift cards from gas companies.
In addition to keeping with their well-worn practice of simply throwing money at a problem, the Democrats maintained their talking points.
In a statement, Thompson said, “Americans are feeling the impact at the pump of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and right now we must work together on commonsense policy solutions to ease the financial burden that my constituents are feeling.”
“The Putin Price Hike is putting strain on our economy, and I am proud to be working with Reps. Larson and Underwood to introduce this legislation to provide middle-class Americans with monthly payments to ease the financial burden of this global crises,” he added.
Beyond blaming Putin, the Democrats also blamed the very people positioned to bring relief to pumps across the country – gas companies.
CNSNews.com noted that Underwood and Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, also introduced the Stop Gas Price Gouging Tax and Rebate Act.
That measure would provide “monthly advanced tax credits, paid for by taxing the excess profits of large oil and gas companies.”
Underwood said her goal was to “put money back in the pockets of families to help them afford rising energy costs while holding greedy oil and gas companies accountable.”
This bill would provide U.S. households a monthly tax credit that would be available to single income-tax filers earning up to $75,000 a year and joint filers making a maximum of $150,000.
The amount of the tax credit was not clear, CNSNews.com noted.
That’s because it would be determined by the amount of revenue generated by a “one-time” 50 percent windfall profit tax on gas and oil companies. They would be taxed for anything above 110 percent of their average taxable income for pre-pandemic period between 2015 and 2019.
Sure, nothing will inspire Big Oil to pump more than taxing anything “excessive” that the companies make while inflation is galloping at a 40-year high, and the base period for the “windfall profit” levy was a time when gas prices were at their lowest levels in more than a decade.
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