My Gas Bill Jumped 45%…
Who’s to blame?
In early February, I left my home in the Las Vegas Valley for two months of work in Mexico. At that time, gas was $3.19 per gallon at my local Smith’s Food King.
I returned just a few days ago to find the price at that same pump had jumped to $4.59—an increase of nearly 45%.
During the 2024 campaign, then-candidate Trump argued that President Biden’s policies had destroyed the economy and were responsible for surging gas prices.
Trump pledged to end a "war on American energy" on his first day in office and promised to bring gasoline below $2 a gallon.
That hasn’t happened.
Like most Americans, I live on a fixed budget. I make what I make, I have little extra to put into savings, and I’m going to struggle with this increase.
I try not to get angry about things like this.
Personally, I don’t think presidents have much control over energy prices; after all, oil is a commodity traded on a global market. But if a candidate opens that door and promises to slash the per-gallon cost, I’m going to hope for the best—and hold them to it.
Which brings me to today’s discussion:
Gas prices are up. Whose fault is it? Joe Biden’s? Donald Trump’s? The Ayatollah’s? The greed of Big Oil? The American people and our own 401(k) investments?
Or maybe all of the above?
The man who said he’d have it all under control was either wrong or lying.
Now, what do we do?
19 comments:
Once again, as always, it's a combination of events. Topped by the #1 and #2 reasons, ignorance and greed.
America and Isreal excel at both.
Dave, Where was your rage in 2022. For a country who is supposed to be energy independent why do the oil companies raise the price of gas 40% since the gas has been refined and stored for three months. Simple answer is because they can.
The so called war was started because the president wanted to show he has gonads and it would be over in a few days. What it proved is he is an idiot and once again the US underestimated the resources and will of a middle eastern country.
I caught some news on the no kings rally and couldn't figure out were they against trump or for freeing Palestine, support the gay movement, eliminate ICE, promote Russia or just a reason to protest and in some cases destroy property. Seems like there was not a unifying theme
I think the first question is what CAN we do? We totally blew it by reelecting a criminal president.
I do have the most politically incorrect and radical opinion in America.
Israel was formed by resolution 181 of the UN in August 1947 and became a nation in 1948.
UN Resolution 181 has proven to be a tragic blunder that assured endless war. It became a path to hell paved with good intentions.
Let's remove religion, "God's chosen people", WWII, the Holocaust, and ancient history from the equation and deal with present realities.
I propose Resolution 181 be rescinded or amended to let Palestine be Palestine, and to allow one of our deep red states to be the new Jewish State, in addition to ending all weapons shipments to the rogue state of Israel.
(It's still a better deal than the US ever gave to Native Americans.)
It's time to stop feeding the beast and being Israel's client state, and it's past time to stop conflating objections to the Israeli government with antisemitism.
We could finally make Washington DC the 50th state, so the flag would stay the same.
Yes, I know it's impractical and nearly impossible, but so is peace in the Middle East.
I'm open to any better idea...if there is one.
For a sobering assessment of how this war will go:
America Is Trapped In This War — And There Is No Way Out (Professor Jiang Analysis)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcDxGveoplc
In this context, my idea doesn't seem so crazy. The point is what is desperately needed is wisdom, and that's not what our leadership is about.
Clearly Skud, you didn't read my post, especially this part...
"Personally, I don’t think presidents have much control over energy prices; after all, oil is a commodity traded on a global market. But if a candidate opens that door and promises to slash the per-gallon cost, I’m going to hope for the best—and hold them to it."
Yes, in July 2022, gas peaked at a US average of $4.55 a gallon. And I was not happy, but the president then did not say he would get prices to $2.00 a gallon. Because he understood, as I noted, gas is a commodity and a president has little control of or ability to manipulate oil prices.
I could be just unhappy, even angry about prices, but our president promised prices would be $2.00.
Maybe you should actually read the post and come back with some answers to the questions I posed.
Skud asked why US oil companies raise prices...
It's called capitalism, rooted in naked, 100% legal, greed. But thankfully we're not socialists here right?
Government in the US does not put fingers on the invisible scales of the free market. Our government does not take ownership positions in US companies. We rely on the hard work of our citizens and never backstop American businesses, large or small because to do any of this stuff, would be tantamount to becoming a bunch of socialist commies.
At least that's what we're told.
"The point is what is desperately needed is wisdom..."
How could anyone expect wisdom from an administration headed by a man with a severe personality disorder that demonstrates to the world that he never matured past the age of a needy toddler. His desperate need for adoration and self-affirmation will never be met, because a person as sick as he is will never be satisfied.
Many of us have to live with the fact that millions of our fellow Americans have miserable judgement when it comes to choosing a president. After Trump's first term, you'd think our fellow citizens would have seen what a wreck of a human being he is.
And as horrendous as Trump is as a human being, what does that say about the people who observed him and then voted for him, AGAIN?!
skud keeps poking at Dave, asking where was his rage in 2022. Well, he expressed his concerns here skud, like one does. He presented facts, like he does, and you were willfully ignorant, like you do. Where was your rage skud?
Good question though, why do oil companies keep raising the prices? Your reply of because they can is simplistic. Their higher ups have to have read the market forecast reports. Oil is an unsustainable power source for our modern society and they know it, hence their manic desire to extract every unit of profit before it all goes belly up.
Of course you didn't understand the the No Kings rally signs. With one unifying voice WeThePeople stood for everything We consider to be important so yes, there were signs on every topic you mentioned and quite a few more that you might not have seen. I know this is hard for you to understand but there are humans in the world who can hold more than one cause in their mind for more than a minute.
A couple of notes - in all the posts I've read I did not see one poster promoting Russia - where exactly are you getting your news? Also of note there were no posts about property damage. From what I could tell everyone got the memo - don't be a jerk and keep your hands off of stuff that ain't yours. Again, your news sources must be telling you lies but they are the lies you believe so... no worries, amirite?
skud - for the record - who won the 2020 presidential election here in the USA. Not who was president but who one the election. Also because you never replied to me - Trump and his administration is on the record covering up their involvement with the Trump-Epstein child SA scandal. I asked if you would denounce Trump because of this and you said nothing. Your silence speaks volumes skud. Aside from already being convicted of SA in NYC Trump was credibly accused by a minor only for the investigation to be buried during his first term as president. FBI interviewed the young lady four times and yet nothing. How do you sleep at night knowing you support a child SA'ing monster?
Wisdom and true compassion has been lacking for one hell of a long time. trump, MAGA, Project 2025, the trumpublican party, and Israel and Butcher Netanyahu simply put ignorance abd hate on steriods.
And the world pays the price.
jolting higher Tuesday and recovering a chunk of their losses because of the war with Iran .
The Stock Marker leaped over 3% and is heading toward its BEST DAY since the war began, a day after it fell more than 9% below its all-time high set early this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up well over 1,000 points, today and is still rising
Sal,
The Market has been a yo-yo due to Trump's lies and manipulations.
And it was 2.49%, not 3%.
Remember when Bondi said, "The Dow is over 50,000"?
What is it now? How many "chunks" LOWER is it?
How do YOU like paying a dollar more for EVERY gallon of gas? Are you celebrating that, too?
No worries.
We know your cult indoctrination won't let you read what we write and your moral cowardice won't allow you to answer any questions.
The almighty dollar over all else. Right bucko, sal?
An unnecessary, immoral, and illegal war of choice, started at the behest of Zionism's Butcher Benjamin Netanyahu, and manipulated by trump to play the market to his own advantage, and you sal are gleefully supporting the imbeciles responsible for all the destruction and death. Like a good whittle Zionist Christian Nationalist.
Stock Market - Trump's yo-yo. The tariff terror finds ways.
Is "true compassion" anything like Wisdoms opposed virtue, Justice? You're uniting opposites again, Les. In other words, it's an "or" not and "and" statement. One get's "traded-off" for the other in "Virtue".
Joe Con is a radical Right authoritarian with no conscience.
He keeps proving it.
Whew... I just listened to the president tell me the war has nothing to do with the rising price of gas. That's great news. It means we can go on bombing Iran knowing it has no effect at the pump.
So since that's true, because otherwise the POTUS was lying, an idiot or both, what IS causing it?
Dave,
The only possible explanation for gas prices would be the diabolical work of Soros. That's GOT to the reason. Oh, and Barack Hussein Obama and BIDEN are to blame.
Wait, and also the "woke fake news".
Only in tRump's Amerika.
Dave, You say no president has control over the price of oil and then you state "The man who said he’d have it all under control was either wrong or lying. Now, what do we do?"
I'm going to just assume you were speaking of trump. The war gives cover to oil companies to raise prices not a reason. Same thing has happened many times and not only in American but most countries.
Skud... it's what he said. I said what I believe to be true... I don't believe a president has control over oil prices. But if he takes that mantle, as Trump did, I'm gonna judge him by his words.
So what was it... was he lying and knew he had no control, or stupidly thought he did, and made a huge mistake, or option 3... he knew he had no control, but chose to lie and deceive the American ppl. You tell us.
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