Brittany Bernstein of National Review Online reports on D.C. Democrats’ disappointing response to Americans’ real inflation woes.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that a federal gas tax holiday is “certainly worth considering” as Americans have been burdened by record-high gas prices in recent months.
ABC’s This Week host George Stephanopoulos asked Yellen if a gas tax holiday is a potential short-term solution after the national average price for gas hit $5 per gallon for the first time ever earlier this month.
“President Biden wants to do anything he possibly can to help consumers. Gas prices have risen a great deal and it’s clearly burdening households,” Yellen said.
She added that Biden “stands ready to work with Congress and that’s an idea that certainly worth considering.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm similarly said that a gas tax pause is an option to bring down prices during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.
The comments come days after members of the White House economic team told The Hill they are considering a gas-tax holiday.
The federal gas tax was last altered in 1993 under the Clinton administration when it was raised to 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline purchased at pumps. The diesel tax was raised to 24.4 cents per gallon at that time as well.
Republicans have argued that a gas-tax pause will be inflationary as residual savings will cause more spending and thus a rise in prices.
Senator John Kennedy (R., La.) called the proposal a “gimmick…that’s not going to make any difference” and said that the Senate Republican Conference had dismissed the idea. Senator James Lankford (R., Okla.) has warned that “a gas tax holiday cannot get through the Senate.”
Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah) and others have said a gas tax suspension could impact public highway infrastructure projects across the country as revenues from the tax go toward the Highway Trust Fund, which is used to maintain the Interstate Highway System, tunnels, bridges, and other roads across the country.
