The price of gas has long been a major factor in assessing the approval of the President and other government officials. Prior to last year's midterm election Republicans attempted to use high gas prices to drag down President Biden and the electoral prospects of congressional Democrats. It didn't work.
Now gas prices have fallen considerably. They now average about $3.44 per gallon nationwide, which is equal to where they were two years ago. That's down from a high of $5.02 in June of 2022. And even though prices fell each month for the remainder of last year, the GOP furiously condemned Biden as being responsible for the high prices and criticized him for not bringing them down.
RELATED: Karine Jean-Pierre Has to School Peter Doocy of Fox News that Lower Gas Prices Are a Good Thing
On Friday on the floor of the House of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-QAnon) sought to make gas prices an issue again. But this time she was appalled that Biden had taken measures to lower gas prices. How dare Biden make the cost of living more affordable for the American people? This debate was centered around her amendment (which later lost by a landslide 14 to 418 vote) to place restrictions on when and how a president can utilize the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. She fumed that...
"President Biden abused his power to sell our oil, reduce gas prices, so that the midterm elections would swing Democrats' way. It's a shame to trick the American people just to win an election. No president should be able to use their emergency powers for politics."
It's a welcome surprise to see Greene actually admit that Biden lowered gas prices, even though she somehow intended it to be a criticism. To be clear, Greene only wants to make sure that Biden is castigated for gas prices when they are high, and also when he successfully manages to lower them. It's a lose-lose proposition. And she is defining anything that benefits the people as a "political" stunt and, therefore, must not be permitted. Which would explain why Republicans never do anything that benefits people, except that we already know they have no aversion to political stunts themselves.
What Greene is actually saying is that no Democratic president should be able to use their powers to benefit the American people. And her Olympic-grade hypocrisy was not lost on Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu who responded to Greene's griping saying that...
"I can summarize this debate of the last two days into one sentence: Joe Biden lowered your gas prices and Republicans are upset about it. That's what this is about. Joe Biden lowered your gas prices and that makes Republicans mad. And how do we know? They said it out loud. The gentlewoman from Georgia earlier this morning just said that Joe Biden lowered your gas prices for political reasons. You know, I don't care why a president lowers your gas prices. If any president can lower your gas prices, we should support that president's action."
Rep. Lieu was just getting started. He continued saying that...
"There's another reason this Republican bill is so stupid. Because not only did Joe Biden lower your gas prices, the United States of America made a profit on it. Buy low, sell high. It was brilliant what Joe Biden did. He released the Strategic Petroleum Reserves when gas prices were high, and that helped lower the gas prices. And then he refilled it at the lower amount. The U.S. made $4 billion dollars on Joe Biden's actions. The Republicans always want to say 'Let's run government like a business.' Joe Biden did exactly that when he lowered your gas prices, and then made a $4 billion dollar profit for the United States of America."
So Biden eased a primary factor of the inflationary crush that Americans were enduring, and he made a few billion bucks on their behalf at the same time. No wonder MTG and the GOP are angry. The problem for them is that they are openly displaying that they couldn't care less about helping the people of this country, especially if there's a chance that Biden or the Democrats might get credit for it. And they remain pitifully out of touch with the issues that matter most to the nation.
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