With The Memorial Day Holiday Bearing Down, Dems Focus on Gas Pump
Lawmakers to ready a series of bills to ease the pain at filling up
Clearly with the calendar quickly counting down to the crucial 2022 midterm elections, Democrats on Capitol Hill look to try to ease the pain Americans are feeling when they fill up at the gas pump.
Democrats are readying a “battery” of bills to lower gas prices, including by penalizing oil giants for profit gouging and more, according to Washington Post reporter Tony Romm.
“Along with suspending the gas tax, it's the beginning of a major, broader push to fight inflation,” Romm tweeted late Wednesday.
Rising prices have been hurting Americans, who in turn, have been inflicting the political costs of those price hikes on President Biden and other Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) asked Democrats to focus on price gouging.
“And a bunch of bills are imminent, sources tell me,” Romm tweeted.
The coming Memorial Day holiday weekend is the unofficial start to summer, and often sees an uptick in Americans taking to the road.
Sen Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) wants to boost Federal Trade Commission authority over oil, with a markup on that legislation, perhaps next week, Romm reported.
Sens Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis) are eyeing legislation to tame gouging after economic crises broadly, he added.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore) is looking at windfall profits tax.
As is Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
“Gas prices are up, and the gains are going straight to CEOs and shareholders. Instead of further enriching top executives, we should pass my Big Oil windfall profits clawback and return half of that money to working Americans,” Whitehouse tweeted.
“I think you’ll see us take a number of steps to address gas prices. I think the biggest consensus right now that we’re hearing from voters is the need to hold Big Oil companies accountable,” said Rep Sean Maloney (D-NY) told The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell. “You’ll see action in that regard.”
Pain at the pump is just part of an overall emerging Democratic strategy to help consumers struggling with rising prices across the board.
Democrats also want to tackle food prices, as well as trying to stabilize the price of lifesaving insulin, which diabetics across the country rely upon every day.
However, since all of this talked about legislation would somehow have to make it past an expected Republican filibuster, and it's not at all clear how Democrats could do that.
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