Joe Biden tried on Wednesday to defend his strategy in the face of record gas prices, promising a small tax gesture for the summer, and invoking a necessary sacrifice to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
By suspending the federal gas tax of 18 cents per gallon for 90 days, we can lower the price and give families some reliefsaid the American president on Wednesday at the White House, asking Congress to adopt this tax gesture, the effectiveness of which is already disputed.
I know full well that this tax suspension alone will not solve the problem, but it will give […] a bit of air to households, he added.
The 79-year-old Democrat, whose popularity is weighed down by soaring prices and in particular by that of gasoline, called on distributors to pass on the least penny of this tax reduction.
” Now is not the time to take advantage of it. “
Joe Biden would like American states to also abolish their gasoline taxes, which are 30 cents per gallon on average, or failing that, find compensation mechanisms.
The average price per gallon of gasoline is now at a record high of $5 in the United States ($4.968 on Wednesday), down from around $3 a year ago.
The Democratic president also called on the hydrocarbon giants, with whom he has strained relations, to increase their refining capacities, but also to follow the fluctuations in the price of black gold downwards, not only upwards.
The combined effort of Congress, the states and the refineries could lower the price at the pump by a dollar a gallon or moresaid Joe Biden.
The suspension of the federal tax of 18 cents, as well as that of 24 cents per gallon of diesel should cost some 10 billion dollars to the funds of infrastructures of the highways, usually financed by these levies.
The administration claims to be able to compensate for the shortfall
This tax suspension was criticized even before its announcement, including in the political family of the president.
The influential boss of the Democratic camp in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, had rejected such an idea last week, which according to her falls under the showbiz.
The media also unearthed statements in 2008 from Barack Obama. The future president, already against a background of rising fuel prices, had publicly opposed a tax suspension, speaking of a measure gadget.
A certain number of experts also expressed their skepticism, in the face of an announcement which in no way solves the fundamental problem: that of a very strong demand in the face of a constrained supply.
Faced with these criticisms, Joe Biden tried on Wednesday to dramatize the issues, recalling that the price of gasoline had risen by two dollars per gallon since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Referring to Western sanctions against Russian hydrocarbons, he said: We could have turned a blind eye to Putin’s murderous actions. Gasoline prices wouldn’t have gone up so much. I believe that would have been a mistake.
Calling on elected Republicans, who relentlessly point to his responsibility, Joe Biden asked: So you’re saying we’d rather have lower gas prices in the US, and Europe in Vladimir Putin’s grasp?
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
