Getting a late start today. My apologies.
There’s a lot of rehashed news today, at least thus far. It’s been challenging to find something that hasn’t already been addressed, and cookies are waiting to be made. Republicans are already having troubles, and the continuing surge in prices may very well sink them in the midterms beyond the potential for a Big Blue Wave. Everyone is unhappy with this piling on of everything else. Almost everyone is unhappy with the forever war. And on Friday, Trump took the unlikely step of actually calling in some people to brainstorm. Gratitude to Raw Story:
In a “private meeting” on Tuesday, President Donald Trump met with several of his top officials to discuss ways to address a growing vulnerability that may prove politically toxic for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
“Gas prices are surging, voter backlash is building, and inside the White House, the options to lower prices at the pump are dwindling,” the Post reported.
Well, that’s one way to say it. Options are dwindling. We are in a battle of who blinks first, Iran or America. Neither one has a pleasant outcome. It has to be both at the same time, but negotiations have faltered. And this, on top of everything else, is crushing the American people. It’s started crushing the world. Voter backlash is most certainly building, and that includes you and me.
Attending the secret meeting was Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and multiple “energy executives,” with the purpose of the gathering being to discuss potential steps to combat soaring gas prices, sparked by the president’s war against Iran, according to an anonymous White House official.
“As the conflict stretches into its 10th week, the White House has exhausted many of the policy levers the federal government can use to mitigate surging gas prices, and the options that remain carry other economic and political risks for the president,” the Post’s Cat Zakrzewski wrote.
It really does seem like a forever war now, not just my snark. We need to free the Iranian people, and we need to get the oil sailing. Rocketing gas prices on top of inflation and the economy are giving us one large heap of trouble. It’s not just oil that isn’t getting through, either. It’s the fertilizer that we needed weeks ago. That has another set of problems to add in. But what can be done specifically about gas prices with the Strait of Hormuz closed?
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently warned that his own party was on track to lose the midterm elections this year due in large part to surging gas prices, which this week reached an average of $4.30 a gallon, the highest per-gallon cost since 2022.
The Trump administration has already “cobbled together piecemeal policy tweaks that have lowered prices on the margins,” Zakrzewski wrote, such as its decision to waive the Jones Act, a 1920 shipping law that mandates goods transported between U.S. ports be carried only on U.S.-built ships.
The Jones Act waiver has only marginally impacted gas prices, and in some cases, may end up increasing gas prices in certain parts of the country, analysts have warned.
We could likely guess some of those parts such as New York, Washington, and California. The other problem is that the oil companies will gouge as they see fit, and there’s no one to call them on it. That’s part of the equation, too. All for this war that apparently had great ideas and goals, and poor execution. Ouch.
See you soon!
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Trump has said, at least once, that once the strait is open- gas prices will drop immediately. I have also read that restarting oil wells and production that have been shut down is not an immediate thing. To me, the second take is probably more realistic and like you said, the oil companies will not necessarily drop prices out of the goodness of their hearts.