Republicans enraged by Biden’s efforts to keep gas prices lower
Republicans enraged by Biden’s efforts to keep gas prices lower
President Joe Biden is taking fresh steps to help keep gas prices from climbing. For Republicans to see this as “disgusting” and “disgraceful” is bizarre.
"How does this dying old man keep outsmarting us?"
-Republicans, constantly
I'm not US, don't have the context, so how is lowering gas prices in face of climate crysis a smart move?
For better or worse, our economy still runs on fossil fuels, and people have real lives and families to take care of. There has to be a balance between battling climate change and being able to provide for families and keep the economy going. The problem is that everyone has a difference of opinion on where that balance is, and the harder it is for people to put food on the table, the less likely they are to support climate change efforts. Also, the harder it is to put food on the table, the more likely voters are to vote out whoever is in office.
Biden right now is trying to keep prices in a range that voters are at least willing to accept. Republicans aren't against it because they suddenly care about the climate change crisis. They're against it because any perceived "win" Biden gets lowers the chances of Trump returning to power and basically taking a shit all over efforts to fight climate change.
Republican energy policy is to let oil barons do whatever they want, destroy whatever they want for new drilling and pay as little taxes as possible.
Democrat energy strategy is to regulate oil, preserve delicate ecosystems by banning oil/gas exploration wells and fracking in those areas and investing in expanded green energy policy.
The political problem for Dems is that ballooning prices at the gas pump are very unpopular with moderate/undecided voters (reality is that almost everyone in this country has to fill up their car tank regularly) and the oil barons can manipulate their output, control the messaging and change these people's votes (especially in an election year).
Dumping some of our strategic reserves when prices get too high is a strategy that counters this machination.
And if the world supply is in a high producing state, dumping some of these reserves can sink prices low enough we can refill those reserves for cheaper than we initially bought the reserves that we dumped.
Republicans then get on the horn and claim this is risky, helps nobody but democrat politics, etc, etc. They're not wrong, but the entire thing is political brinkmanship, so... who cares? 😄
"I did that" sticker people in shambles
Don't forget about the recent pricing collusion reporting.
The higher prices were the result of collusion with OPEC by American oil producers.
Wouldn't surprise me at all if those decals were intentionally created by conservative groups in the know.
We should resurrect those...to trigger all the magasnowflakes.
I saw one of those on a pump after prices went down (as they tend to do), and actually did lol. One of the redhatters had not gotten to it yet. I suspect at least a few of them realized the irony.
Republicans are outraged at anything Biden does. This isn't new.
Yeah it started back in 2008 with Obama winning. GOP does nothing but oppose anything "libs" do.
Oh, it's way older than Obama. Republicans hated Clinton and Carter.
It's been happening since Newt Gingrich. He created the playbook
They can't come up with anything helpful for people. They just take anything a democrat does and do the opposite. It's insane.
Democrats - Lets make peoples lives better: Republikkklowns - WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!?! WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE SHAREHOLDERS!!!!!!!
Man, I remember when the "Tea Party" (what became the Freedom Caucus, then MAGA) was laughed out of the room by the vast majority of people, and Sarah Palin, who, it is rumored, can still see Russia from her house in Alaska, was not idolized but ridiculed to the point where movies like "Iron Sky" spoofed her with clueless villain characters. Good times.
It’s like when they refused to pass their own immigration bill because they’d rather campaign on the issue than fix the problem.
The same reason Republicans voted against their own immigration bill: Trump told them not to because he doesn't want to give that win to Biden. No wins for Biden, especially in an election year. Republicans continue holding us hostage so they can to put their fuhr back in office.
“Bah– god! Here’s Biden with a steel chair!”
Remember when they did climb and republicans stuck little "I did that" stickers on the pumps?
Should be taxing the shit out of it anyway to snap the US from it's petrol addiction.
Is there even a hair of validity to the argument that Biden’s “environmental polices” are leading to increased gasoline prices? The US is literally producing more gasoline than it uses, and oil imports are taxed federally at about 2¢.
Seems like most of the squeeze is from petro states, oil cartels, and corporations that want to price gouge.
Whether the US is a net importer or exporter of oil and gas is actually pretty irrelevant to gas prices. It's important for other reasons, but oil is a global market regardless of where it's produced.
It is about hating Biden.
It’s about appeasing trump
I pass a dipshits house that house many flags on it, and ha had signs in his front yard about how Biden is responsible for gas prices being so high for years now. He took the signs down. It makes me laugh.
That's because Republicans care about the Working Class! Didn't Red States pass Laws preventing Heat Protections and Water Breaks?
This is interesting. In my town there are stickers on the gas pumps of Joe Bidens face and they say "I did this". So I figured it was his fault /s
Am i the only one who is outraged that the gas cap in this photo is not placed on its dedicated holder?
I cannot count how many times I've put that on, and someone I'm with comments that they never knew it could do that. :)
Oh man now I'm kinda sad that my gas cap is just a flap that is pushed in by the nozzle and I can't go see if it actually had a cap holder the whole time :(
Republicans enraged by Biden
There, FTFY
They’re better at fake outrage than we are at actual outrage.
Well yeah, that's usually their move in an election year. They're mad because they're not the ones doing it.
I remember when Republicans had no problem sending out tax rebate checks we couldn't afford with GWB's signature on them, so this is a bit less disgraceful by comparison.
I also remember the excellent Futurama episode those checks inspired
PROFITS!?!!? Where are all our profits????? /s
its that awful trend of modern journalism where they just quote literally one word.
and the word is never "cunt". It's like people are afraid to say that one.
STOP TRYING TO HELP PEOPLE YOU FASCIST. WE WANT PEOPLE TO SUFFER >:(
They are hoping to collude with Putin to push oil prices (and therefore nearly everything) higher so that Ronald McDonald has a better chance of sliming his way into office.
While it may be a bad thing in the long run, gettingthat reaction from the enemy is still worth it
1M barrels of gasoline is about 90 minutes of national usage. Its not even a blip on the radar of gas prices. It will affect prices by approximately nothing.
I actually just want permanently higher gas prices like in Europe to facilitate the move to EVs. The US needs to break the addiction to oil.
A lot of people will be even poorer increasing the price of gas in Europe, most working class people cant switch to an EV just because,my family (myself included, but now i live in a big city where i dont need a car anymore) purchase usually 15+ year old cars, and there is no decent public transportation in that zone. I know you just want easy upvotes saying stupid things like that, but really, viewpoints like that are harmful towards the working class, if you want to facilitate the move towards EVs what you need is cheaper EVs, and tbh, fuck that bullshit and instead push toward better public transportation in rural areas instead of keeping the push in personal vehicles that are as wasteful.
Ideally, you tax the hell out of fossil fuels then redistribute it to the poor. The rich and middle class cut their usage and/or switch to EVs and the poor can get by while viable alternatives to driving are implemented and EV prices come down.
Also EV structures in the cities are not good because most people live in places with no garages or driveways. Better public transportation is the way.
News flash: The working class in most of Europe is doing much better than the working class in the US. And that's with much higher gas prices and higher taxes.
They also drive more EVs and have a heck of a lot higher quality public transportation.
The US needs better public transit everywhere, not just EVS.
Definitely agree. But there are a lot people in the US who have been conditioned to whine about "communist public transportation" every time it's brought up, so it never really happens. EVs are a good middle ground to get many of these people onboard with more environmentally friendly transportation.
That is an inverse progressive tax. The lower income you are, the higher % of your income you pay.
It's essentially a tax on the poor trying to subsidize renewables. If the US had viable alternatives, maybe I'd support this. I don't think the poor need more taxes right now, though.
The word you're looking for is regressive
If you return the tax to everyone as a dividend, then it becomes progressive, while still encouraging less polluting options
What other countries do is build viable public transportation to counter.
How much will climate change cost the poor?
That comes after the election.
We are being devastated by the higher gas prices. People don't have the money nor the infrastructure is given to move to EV. Even if one does have money for EV, charging stations are extremely rare and you WILL find yourself stranded if you attempt any long drive unless you have a "old" combustion engine car or an hybrid both affected by the higher prices.
You don't want higher prices on gas with 0 attempt to actually make EV viable, trust me.
The "extreme" rarity you claim for charging stations is a myth, possibly propagated by the petrol industry. Plugshare offers accurate information regarding the location of charging stations (https://www.plugshare.com/). And the cool thing about that is there are both commercial and home/ office stations, with more coming online all the time. It's kinda good that EM bobbled the supercharger thing, so it encourages more groups to start providing chargers. The great thing about Plugshare and ABRP (abetterrouteplanner.com/) is that it makes it very easy to see and plan for your next charge. Tho' I do agree that the way to go is make the E-charging cheaper, not to make the petrol more expensive, yet.
What you are saying is that you should invest in infrastructure for electric cars instead of subsidising the oil industry again?
Bullshit. My wife and I did a two week road trip up/down 2/3 of the east coast in our Tesla last year, and not once did we have a problem charging. Half the hotels we stayed in had level 2 chargers that didn’t cost us anything to use, and Teslas SuperCharger network was perfectly reliable. We also found more than one parking garage with free chargers while parked.
Now that NACS has been adopted as the open SAE J3400 standard and most EV manufacturers have announced support for it, the rollout of more third party fast chargers should start ramping up soon. And with Tesla open up Superchargers to other EVs it’s getting easier and easier to charge.
Desperately hanging on to old things is not a long term solution. Petition your government to facilitate a decrease on the reliance of oil, not to help you keep it the same.
And on the other side of the same coin you have suburbanites driving 2 ton vehicles that drive 20 miles to the gallon.
So higher gas prices will primarily require a lot of people to abandon the "who cares about mileage" mindset and start driving actually normal vehicles.
Also plenty of EVs have 300+ mile ranges and that will suffice for 95% of travel in the US too. Insert proper plug in hybrids in the mix that do 50 miles electric and probably range anxiety is something of the past.
Remaining on the teet of big oil means big oil will keep sucking up corporate welfare while devastating our planet.
Also public transport needs to improve. Dedicated buslanes to bypass traffic jams in big cities means that each bus takes dozens of cars off the road.
I guarantee most of the complainers drive around dumbass pickup trucks as their everyday vehicle, filling up at $250 every 2 weeks. I have problems feeling sorry for them.
The infrastructure is much better in the US than you’re suggesting. I’ve taken numerous long road trips in my EV (and it’s not a Tesla, so not using the supercharger network) and I’ve never once been stranded or even had to wait longer than a 10-15 minutes before I’m able to plug in and charge on the rare time the chargers are busy, and I’m talking 2000+ mile trips. Could it be better? Absolutely. But it’s nowhere near as bad as you are trying to make it.
One could argue this was true a few years ago, but EVs are more viable now.