A gas tax holiday sounds fantastic. But there’s a reason Obama bashed it as a ‘gimmick’ https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/business/gas-tax-holiday-biden/index.html excerpt: In the spring of 2008, as gas prices were barreling towards record highs, presidential candidates John McCain and Hillary Clinton threw their weight behind a gas tax holiday. Future president Barack Obama, by contrast, dismissed the idea as a political “gimmick” designed purely to win votes. “The easiest thing in the world for a politician to do is tell you exactly what you want to hear,” Obama said in April 2008. Flash forward 14 years. Obama’s former vice president is now pushing for a gas tax holiday to ease the strain of record-high gas prices. President Joe Biden wants a three-month pause on the 18.3-cent-per-gallon federal tax. more at the link
There's nothing else he can do for cheap gas outside of invading Iraq on the wink wink premise of spreading freedom and make Americans hate Iraqis so much that they don't complain about higher gas prices. I guess he could tell Ukraine to eat dirt but the sanctions were mostly his idea.
I think a Republican President would restart payments, probably as one of the first things that happens as they come into office and you have the first wave of things the new President does. I think the Biden Administration is equivocating and will find any pretext to extend and push that political football down the road. Biden doesn't want to wave his scepter and forgive $1.5 trillion of student loan debt. Even if it is technically within his powers, which is disputed, he is reluctant to do it and it will be thrown back in Democrats faces in the future regarding Presidential use of power. There will always be some reason why "now is not a good time to restart student loans." Student loans have been deferred 6 times now and some of the reasoning has been some pretty thin gruel. And, yea, it's always really challenging for the government to cut a benefit or, in this case, require student loan payments to restart but borrowers have gotten the massive benefit of 2.5 years of no interest accrual on their loans, the majority of whom did not lose their jobs and are able to pay and it's time people start paying their debts.
Seriously? California to investigate oil companies to see why their gas is so expensive https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/0...-to-see-why-their-gas-is-so-expensive-n477842 excerpt: The Democrats’ efforts to blame high gas prices on Vladimir Putin have gone over like a rake handle to the face this year. That means that a new villain has to be found, as long as the finger isn’t being pointed at them. California is scrambling to address the public relations fiasco as quickly as possible this month. Taking a cue from Joe Biden, the state legislature will open an investigation into… the “greedy oil companies.” While it’s almost comical to watch this play out, it’s also almost understandable. Since they can’t take responsibility for the fallout caused by their own policies, they have to find somebody to blame. So why not invoke the specter of “Big Oil” to gin up the locals against anyone but themselves? (CBS News) *** Normally, we could write off this nonsense as yet another case of politicians attempting to meddle in a highly complex industry that they don’t really understand. But while some of that may be in play here yet again, we’re talking about California. The people who are scheduled to conduct this “investigation” are the same people that made California the state with literally the highest rate of gasoline taxes in the nation. And it’s not even close. What’s more, they were scheduled to raise the gas tax again last monthbefore abandoning the plan when they realized that people would probably soon show up at their doors with pitchforks and torches. A number of different factors influence gas prices, with the cost of oil being only one of them. Oil prices are determined by a complex formula of supply, demand, and what refiners are willing to bid for oil based on projected future demand levels. The distance that the refined fuel has to travel also impacts the cost dramatically, and California has become so unfriendly to any businesses even remotely related to the oil and gas industry that their gas tends to travel a long way before reaching the pump. more at the link
Yes, I think that is a Republican wins in 2024 they will restart loan payments. However there can be political consequences for that as well. The people that are repaying the loans are going to feel a lot stronger about it than other people. That is why I don't think either side right now is pressing the issue. I don't think Biden has that authority, and we don't want that.... we have seen what has happened since executive power has grown since Bush and 9-11. We have seen each new President (other than Biden so far) abuse the power. I think that Biden would under different circumstances consider pushing for legislative assistance to forgive student loan debt at a grand level but there is no clear plan for student debt going forward. He has pushed for some degree of forgiveness. I have seen 10-15K a student as a number thrown around. I'm not really debating whether the government should or shouldn't forgive the debt. It is a difficult discussion as there are valid points on both sides aside from the basic fairness argument. There is debate about which is even better for the economy. What I will say is that I have not seen any strong proposal to fix the issue going forward, and both parties seem content to no want to rock the boat at this time. As for what I think the ultimate solution is? I expect that we are going to start seeing more student loan forgiveness in bankruptcy courts. We have already seen some courts discharge it. That is a way that the issue can be addressed and neither party has to stick their neck out and can point the finger at someone else....which is what always happens.
Not surprising and arguably politically smart. High gas prices and inflation is being entirely blames on Biden by the Republicans (because it is smart politics) so the Democrats are going to respond by blaming some of the largest and wealthiest corporations in the world for being greedy (smart politics). High gas prices are complicated and are a result of a lot of things.... COVID, Ukraine, government spending, increased wealth disparity and other factors. In 2020 I posted that the government would have to keep people afloat with government financial assistance and it would result in bad inflation.... you don't pull money out of mid air over night without consequences.... that coupled with supply chain shortages would just drive up demand and costs. The government really should have had their financial assistance more targeted but that wasn't politically feasible, we cannot even get the parties to agree on what is and isn't criminal behavior.
Is this news? Inflation is a supply-chain problem that started with Covid - it wasn't a problem until the economy started booming and we didn't have the capacity to actually supply things. It simply got worse with Ukraine as the problems expanded in both oil and food issues from Ukraine.
Interesting paper that finds that price mark-up in highly concentrated industries does indeed seem to be a significant contributor to inflation: https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/prices-profits-and-power/ Who knew that 40 years of the DOJ, FTC and the courts failing to do their jobs and enforce competition laws would have this result.
It's a fact that O&G companies are sitting on thousands of untapped wells. I have no problem with them being asked why that is.
The problem with use sites like hotair is that it's pure propaganda, Os. This is one of the more dishonest articles you have posted. On each gallon of gas you buy in California, you pay $0.85 cents. About 20 cents is federal tax, so California taxes are around $0.65 which is definitely very high, but when you consider the price of gas in California is about a buck fifty more than the rest of the nation, something doesn't add up. You can't explain it just by higher state and local gas taxes: https://www.kcra.com/article/california-democrats-investigate-high-gas-prices/40354244 Hotair.com is a site that has zero credibility.
We just had 14 years of like 0% interest from the fed.. plus covid stimulus... money had to go somewhere... it went into assets and created prices detached from the underlying economics.
Yes inflation is high for multiple reasons including supply chain issues, COVID stimulus lingering effects, and the war in Ukraine - all contributing factors. It's also companies being able to raise prices because they can get away with it right now with higher demand - just trying to maximize profit - and that's not something anyone can control. These super low interest rates of the past what - 20 years? Was bound to catch up with the global economy. Everyone had to know that, and it seems we've reached the end perhaps of the ultra low interest rate era. Or maybe it will normalize back. We're almost certainly heading for a recession by the end of the year or early next. It's unavoidable. The good news is that as the supply chain opens back up and demand declines, inflation should be get under control very quickly. The Fed actually has to be careful not to overdo it on the interest rates. Hopefully they wise up and not panic by raising rates by 3/4 of a point again. It's not something Americans like, but patience is a good thing when it comes to economic policy as it can takes years for an action to be born out.
