Dreading Memorial Day Weekend Gas Prices? Senate Democrats Have a ‘Gimmicky’ Solution

Americans have faced record-high gas prices for months, and this Memorial Day weekend is going to be no exception.

In a last-ditch effort to save face on the issue ahead of the midterms, a group of Senate Democrats facing tough reelection campaigns proposed a bill that would temporarily suspend the federal gas tax. However, liberal economists and even members of their own party have publicly acknowledged it’s a nothingburger.

Nancy Pelosi: “Very Showbiz”

The Hill: “‘The pro is very showbiz. ‘OK, let’s just do something, there it is.’ But it is not necessarily landing in the pocket of the consumer,’ Pelosi said at a press conference in the Capitol.”

Joe Manchin: “It Just Doesn’t Make Sense”

Washington Post: “But the proposal drew early opposition from at least one pivotal party lawmaker, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who told reporters Tuesday he was not comfortable with the fact that a gas tax holiday could leave federal highway funds in worse shape.

“‘People want their bridges and their roads, and we have an infrastructure bill we just passed this summer, and they want to take that all away,’ said Manchin, adding, ‘It just doesn’t make sense.’”

Former Obama Treasury Secretary Larry Summers: “Shortsighted, Ineffective, Goofy and Gimmicky”

Washington Post: “But Lawrence H. Summers, a treasury secretary and top White House economist under previous Democratic administrations, called the idea of a gas tax holiday ‘shortsighted, ineffective, goofy and gimmicky.’ A high-profile critic of the Biden administration on the issue of inflation, Summers said the policy’s potential impact is at best unclear, because it may boost demand in other parts of the economy.

“‘It’s terrible policy at a moment we’ve labeled climate change as an existential threat,’ Summers added.”

Bipartisan Policy Center’s Director of the Housing and Infrastructure Project Andy Winkler: “An Election-Year Messaging Bill”

E&E News: “‘It’s not a real remedy for long-term inflation or for high gas prices,’ said Andy Winkler, director of the housing and infrastructure project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. ‘It’s more of an election-year messaging bill that really won’t save them from hearing from constituents about rising gas prices.’”

Tax Foundation: “Would Exacerbate Inflation”

Tax Foundation: “In the context of the whole economy, reducing or eliminating the gas tax would exacerbate inflation. Currently, demand in the economy, boosted by expansionary fiscal and monetary policy, far outstrips supply, plagued with its own problems driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. Temporarily suspending the gas tax would be a much smaller program than, say, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) enacted last March, but it would have some shared design problems: providing more fiscal stimulus than the gap between the economy’s current positionand its potential.”

Bottom line: Democrats have no real plan to fix Americans’ pain at the pump. Their only priority is maintaining political power in November.