Gas drops to $2.88 a gallon. Can higher federal gasoline taxes be far behind?

Photo above - our grandparents may have had other holiday priorities than the price of gas per gallon at the pump . . .

I was expecting higher gas cost per gallon, now that we are in the year-end, price-gouging season. What I got instead was about a 10 cent per gallon savings. I’m paying less than $3.00 a gallon for the first time in a couple of years. (See link below.)

Don’t worry – officials in DC have a plan to fix all that. How about we TRIPLE the federal gasoline tax to $0.37 cents a gallon? And add layers of new EV taxes. This time it’s not just one party planning to pick my pocket. We need to blame Republicans (who today control both the Senate and House of Representatives) and Democrats, who wake up each morning dreaming of tax and spending increases.

How much will the gas tax increase cost? Around $400 billion, accord to the “CAP” link at bottom. I guess I shouldn’t spend my $1,776 Trump Tariff Tax rebate when it arrives. I’ll need it to just keep my car on the road, and get to work.

Traditionally it’s House Democrats who propose federal gasoline tax increases in the brief moments when pump prices subside. Their oft repeated theory: that voters “won’t notice” since we were paying high prices per gallon in the months prior. I’m sure some Republicans have sworn allegiance to the “they’ll never notice” cult this time around too.

Shouldn’t we stop pretending that higher taxes and budget deficits are the reason America has a decent standard of living (provided someone has a diploma and a job). “No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity” according to Winston Churchill. Even The People’s Republic of China doesn’t even try to tax their peasants to death any more. Maybe America should try spending less. Do we really need 800+ American military bases around the world? Subsidies for giant data centers which use as much electricity as an entire city? To spend half of a person’s lifetime medical expenses during the last 12 months of their life?

Related to that last point: It was revealed yesterday that Nick Reiner (before killing his mother and father) had recently switched therapists and medicines. His new outpatient treatment cost $70,000 a month. Outpatient! $70K monthly! Nearly a million dollars a year, before adding in new gasoline and EV taxes just to get to the sessions.

Rob Reiner clearly loved his son, if he signed up for this expensive treatment after years of failed previous therapies. But apparently there are some problems money can’t solve. Despite what politicians in congress tell us.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Gas prices hit $2.88 a gallon and Dems experience 'affordability derangement syndrome'

The House Republican Plan To Increase Gas and Electricity Prices - Center for American Progress

jehova · 36-40, M

The price of gas is up from prior to Trump being elected. 2.88 where? I’m in Albany N.Y. area it’s average 3.20$ a gallon

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@ElwoodBlues my mom just got her december natural gas (heat) bill. the cost per cubic foot is 73 cents. 40% higher than the 46 cent she was paying in december last year. the utility was approved for a 50% rate increase. but the wholesale price of natural gas is only up 25% over that same period.

why should natural gas go up, as gasoline goes down? is a lot of that natural gas being diverted to run electric plant generators?

ElwoodBlues · M

@SusanInFlorida Merry Christmas!

It's a good question and I don't know the answer. But I can speculate! Energy is fungible, cost per BTU of thermal sources should be fairly close across sources, so it's a real anomaly. From what I've read, OPEC has increased production, driving global crude down. Why they need cash I don't know. Anyway, a curious fact is that our gasoline refineries are still mostly tuned to heavy middle east & Canadian crude, and not to lighter fracked or cracked shale & tar sands oil. So cheaper Arabian crude might have a bigger effect on US gasoline.

Interestingly, that refinery tuning keeps us from achieving true oil independence. Even if we extract enough barrels, we still have to sell the light cracked oil and buy heavy crude to feed our refineries. Why is this? I really don't know. Maybe it's easier to get our ratios of gasoline to diesel from heavier crude.