General Politics Discussion (IX) [ARCHIVED] • Page 1650

bad idea

 

This would actually be rad.

 

Why? I'm an idiot, please explain lol

 

Gas stations/gas companies are just going to raise their prices and eat any savings that this gas tax relief would give. There is no guarantee this actually saves anyone any real money.

Typically to, if price goes down then that would lead demand to go up due to lower prices which then is going to raise the price of gas even further.

 

Oil companies have seen just how high they can push things at this point, so there's nothing stopping them from continuing to cut supply and raise prices even after the tax is suspended. So it could effectively just be a subsidy for oil and gas companies.

Plus the gas tax goes to critical services like infrastructure improvement. And typically when those are in need of funds, other areas like education could see their budgets get slashed to make up the difference.

I'm also not sure lowering the cost of gas by 18 cents is really going to do much to change things in the eyes of voters when the cost is already above $5 in many places. So it's not like it's going to be some big political win anyway.

 

I mean on a twenty gallon tank you are talking about saving like $3.60. Its really not a whole helluva a lot. If you fill up like four times a month, its saving a little less than $15 a month.

Might as well tell people to stop buying soda or coffee to be able to afford gas, you know how like the olds tell us to afford buying a house.

 

i forget the correct terminology that people smarter than me have used talking about it, but basically we have a supply problem at the refinery level where our capacity to refine oil is strained right now. So a gas tax holiday isn’t really going to fix that and in fact could spur MORE demand for gasoline, which would just further strain the supply chain.

And yeah what other said about oil companies just pocketing the difference instead of lowering their prices

 

Gotcha, I guess I thought the gas tax was higher.

Thanks

 

There’s a federal gas tax and then states impose their own right?

 

That is correct. They have talked about doing a gas tax holiday for Michigan's state tax but the hole it would blow in their road maintenance budget is wild and seemingly not worth it. Particularly for how underfunded that budget has been for the past forty years in my state.

 

we have a road maintenance budget lol

 

Been underfunded by Republicans for the past forty years when compared to our peers in the region. As much as people want to bitch about our weight limit (which I really think is not that big of an issue as people make it out to be) or that they use cheap materials (could be), the real reason our roads suck is just pure lack of funding.

Like everything else in this country, we kick the can down the road and let those costs balloon and then throw our hands up at fixing anything.

 

Ok so i'm going to have to smoke like 3 times as many cigarettes now to get the Nicotine i need to make me a productive member of society and not go insane at work. Smart.

Well intentioned but extremely dumb. You can't just extremely limit or ban Nicotine without a widescale plan to deal with people's addiction first. Unless you want tens of millions of workers going through withdrawals all at the same time.

also this is how you create a black market.

 

Might be a good idea to log off

 

The gas tax thing is a lose lose situation

Pause gas tax - provides little relief, gas demand goes up and gas prices still increase and people get mad again
Don’t pause gas tax - “boy this Biden guy just loves taxes and hates to do anything to help us”

 

Oh, 100% agree. It was just too easy to not make the joke. I was on a 9 day road trip a couple weeks back to Memphis and New Orleans and god damn, only NO had roads that were as close to Michigan quality on that whole trip. It was wild coming back to michigan to hit a pothole on the highway and pull over to see if my wheel was fucked.

 

This piece of shit continues to climb my ranks of my most hated Republican.

 

Send us gas cards

 

Or just threaten oil companies.

 

it’s a little more lose on the pause side because you’re losing that revenue for no actual gain. Nobody would be talking about it if it wasn’t this admin that proposed it so the don’t pause thing is self inflicted anyway.

 

Maybe just nationalize them and try their execs for crimes against humanity.

 

Mayo Climic contacted me today and said I was available to receive Evusheld.

Id love to get it before we go to the Dominican in August but they’re only offering me to get it up there and I’m not going back until September. I’m going to contact my PCP and see if he can work with them to set it up here.