Gas prices are so low Ted Cruz cancelled his flight and drove to Cancun.
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) July 26, 2022
Post your best #GasPricesAreSoLow
I'm going to ignore the normal format here since this post is going to be all commentary. The above tweet? It got me furious, to the point I had to write up a blog post. Representative Eric Swalwell, most noted for his tweet about how the government should nuke gun owners, has put his foot in his mouth yet again, this time trying to start a trend on Twitter with the #GasPricesAreSoLo hashtag.
Gas prices have declined from their high back in June where regular unleaded was just over $5 a gallon nationally. Today, they are at $4.327, according to AAA. Of course in California, where Eric Swalwell was inexpiably elected, gas prices are at $5.70.
There are a few reasons why gas prices have dropped lately. Biden and the Democrats are trying to take credit for it, but the only thing they have done that has helped at all is releasing oil from the emergency reserves. That option is going to end soon as we are eventually going to run out.
The other main factors that I am aware of is the fact that China went back into coronavirus lockdown. Some of the biggest cities in the world are back into China style lockdowns, which are dramatically more harsh than we ever had here. This has brought demand for fuel down a bit.
The other factor is that people are simply driving less. Normally, people are driving a lot in summer but many people have decided that doing so is just too expensive. I know that I personally have been avoiding driving my SUV as much as possible and sticking with my older and more fuel efficient sedan. With many people making the same decision, some of these prices are going down.
But it's utterly insane to argue that the prices are doing good. After looking at the average prices I realize that I am doing lucky here in Northeast Wisconsin as the last time I saw gas prices it was at $3.79. Even that lower price is dramatically more than we were paying in the pre-pandemic world. And I'm one of the lucky ones! Imagine how people in California and other high priced states feel!
And the elephant in the room is diesel prices. Diesel currently costs $5.39 a gallon. Though most people don't drive diesel powered cars, almost all of our countries trucking relies on this fuel. And it has hardly dropped at all in comparison. Keep in mind that almost all goods are transported by vehicles that rely on diesel fuel and higher costs there are passed onto the consumer. It's one of the reasons why inflation is out of control and one of the reasons why I spend $115 on groceries today compared to $75 to 80 this time last year.
What gets me is that Swalwell doesn't seem to understand this. People are still suffering a great deal and he's making jokes about how low gas prices are. Is he completely out of touch? Is he gaslighting people? Does he simply not know how prices are anymore? I guess it doesn't matter.
What does matter is the anger this "let them eat cake" attitude engenders. Swalwell is far from the only politician to make statements like this, most notably Pete Buttigieg made the same kind of comments saying that the more people suffer from high gas prices the better off people with electric vehicles will be. I can't speak for anyone else but these kind of statements make me furious. Maybe not to the point of taking up arms and overthrowing the government, but a lot closer than it's probably safe to admit...
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