Democrat Joe Manchin signals he won't support Biden's call for a gas tax holiday

[rlegro]

28. Biden and his team aren't stupid

They know all that. They also know Republicans are highly unlikely to approve the tax holiday in any event. So right now he gets a little bit of PR. When the GOP kills it, Republicans get a bit more bad press. It's called politics in an election year. As for King Coal Manchin, he's becoming harder to distinguish from Susan Collins -- I mean rhetorically, not necessarily physically. They're both huge concern trolls and Peanuts cartoon Lucy Van Pelts who consistently pull the football away as Charlie Brown Democrats are about to kick it. A pox on both their houses. Oh, and if the Republicans were even smart even to suddenly decide to vote for the gas tax holiday? And Manchin changed his mind, too? (fat chance of that). Somewhere in the House or Senate there would be a few other Democrats in safe districts who would take the heat for Biden and find something truly wrong with the measure. You are right, Dr. Loveless, the tax holiday is a bad idea but it remains a better ploy than no ideas. By the way, in Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Evers annoyed Republicans bigly by issuing an executive order that temporarily restricts how much oil companies can raise retail prices and mandates a price reduction scheme if crude prices stabilize at a lower level. That, too, will be hard to enforce and won't necessarily show motorists any obvious gains (prices could keep going up, just less rapidly and only to a limited peak, but most motorists will pay no attention to political news and will still blame Evers -- who other than that can't do a damned thing about gas prices except to urge conservation. It's his Jimmy Carter moment, and for anyone with a brain it's a Jimmy Carter moment. We'll take the heat no matter what but maybe we can maneuver a little and lower that temperature slightly. That's how it works.