GordonGekko
Footballguy
Direct Headline: Biden administration is considering sending rebate cards to millions of Americans to help pay for gas as White House tries to soften skyrocketing prices
Senior Biden administration officials are floating a plan to send Americans 'rebate' cards....The plan, which had previously been under consideration, comes as the administration is anxious to show movement on an issue Biden has called his top priority. ...Biden wrote oil companies demanding they refine more oil, Press Secretary Karine-Jean Pierre said it was their 'patriotic duty' to do so....after prices have hit $5 per gallon, with a $2 increase from a year ago.... In a hangup that encapsulates the challenges of 2022 amid the ongoing pandemic, aides have discovered that 'shortages in the U.S. chip industry would make it hard to produce enough rebate cards....Officials have also raised concerns there may be no way to prevent people from blowing the gift cards on other purchases. Even gas stations routinely sell chips, sodas, lottery tickets, and all manner of goods....If would likely require congressional approval, meaning Senate Republicans could try to filibuster an idea that might provide Biden a boost in the run-up to congressional elections.....
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said...'We want to address the price of gas and oil so that people can fill up their cars and heat their homes – and cool their homes down in the summer,'....referenced Biden's move to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve....She also spoke favorably of asking more states to waive gas taxes amid the crunch.....
By Geoff Earle 16:23 EDT, 17 June 2022
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10927825/Biden-administration-considering-sending-rebate-cards-millions-Americans-gas.html
TWEET: Jason Howerton XX@XXjason_howerton
This clip is ASTONISHING. Energy Sec. XX@XXJenGranholm demands energy companies to make massive investments to increase oil supply while simultaneously saying they want to shut them down over the next 5-10 years. WHAT IS THIS WHITE HOUSE?!
4:23 PM Jun 15, 2022
https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/1537214216989552641
Direct Headline: Stimulus Check Update: Is White House Looking to Send More Money?
...Another issue with stimulus checks is that they have been cited as one of the contributing factors to the current soaring inflation. Financial experts have blamed an influx of stimulus cash for causing an imbalance in supply and demand, because the amount of goods available do not currently meet the desires of Americans looking to spend more....In an attempt to better balance the supply and demand ratio, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its largest interest rate hike in 28 years. This move was done to make consumers spend less because of the higher rates. Americans having more stimulus money to spend could potentially work against this logic....
....In March, Axios reported the White House discussed gas cards but shelved the idea. The outlet cited an unnamed aide as saying even some House Democrats had expressed opposition to the concept. Other factors for not pursuing the plan at that time included not wanting to over-extend the IRS, who would be responsible for the distribution, and concern it would worsen inflation....A poll released last week from The Washington Post and George Mason University's Schar School found that around 44 percent of U.S. drivers said they have only partially filled their vehicle gas tank because of high gas prices....Meanwhile, an ABC News/Ipsos poll released earlier this month found that 74 percent of U.S. adults said gas prices will be an "extremely" or "very" important factor in how they will vote during the fall's congressional midterm elections.....
By Jon Jackson 6/17/22 3:20 PM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/stimulus-check-update-will-white-house-send-more-money-1716973
Direct Headline: White House exploration of gas rebate cards complicated by chip shortages
Those efforts, though, come amid early signs of a broader slowdown in the economy, which could ease inflationary pressures but also lead to higher joblessness and slower growth.... On Friday, oil prices suddenly dropped to a four-week low — a decline likely to push down gas prices — the latest indicator of a potential recession after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates this week to try to contain inflation....The week’s staggering decline in the stock market — coupled with weaker-than-expected jobless claims and retail sales data — also reflects the risks in the central bank’s move to crush inflation by tightening monetary conditions. Wall Street recorded its worst week since March 2020, the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as investors struggle to adjust to the Fed’s dramatic move.....
....Biden aides have also looked in recent days at invoking the Defense Production Act to move diesel and other refined products should localized shortages materialize, two people familiar with the matter said. Diesel prices have risen markedly, posing a major threat to the nation’s trucking and shipping industries...But energy markets hinted at the potential downsides of an economy that cools too quickly, with crude oil prices falling on Friday. “The good news is that crude oil prices, which drive gas prices, had a big down day,” said Bob McNally, a former energy official in the Bush administration. “But the reason for it is a bad reason — that people are fearing a recession....”
....Gas prices have been one of the most visible signs of inflation....Critics also say the idea could backfire by further pushing up prices by adding to consumer demand....Other proposals floated by policy experts include suspending the Jones Act, which would reduce shipping costs and make it cheaper to get gasoline from the Gulf Coast to the Eastern Seaboard, imposing price controls and banning exports of U.S. energy. But all these ideas have their own political and practical downsides, with the Jones Act supported by influential union groups and economists warning that any supply restrictions could exacerbate the problem. One person said the White House has also looked at limits on fuel exports, an idea first reported on Thursday by Bloomberg News, although that proposal does not appear to have gained much traction....
....“Not only is there not an extant solution, but nobody thinks there’s going to be a compelling solution,” an outside economic adviser to the White House said. “They’re fighting about narrative rather than fighting about substance, because realistically, what are they going to do?”
By Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager June 17, 2022 at 10:42 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/06/17/biden-gas-white-house/
************
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. - Ronald Reagan
Biden's Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Cecilia Rouse says - "All options are on the table"
Let's talk about what is really on the "table" here
1) If you want to even begin to start controlling inflation, then you have to stop printing money like you are going to wall paper the Moon with it.
2) There is an unsettling but undeniable new normal where Team Blue has just declared open war on the middle class. Wealthy "elites" and retired geriatrics like myself with "Old Man FU money" still make out OK because our asset base tends to hold/retain their value even in clearly government inflicted tough economic times. Many of the very poor and at the poverty level, not all but far too many, don't pay taxes, don't work, and get free gifts and prizes from the government. There's limited to no impact here for them as long as Team Blue stays in power. But the middle class gets a triple shot of BOHICA as they are getting financially massacred from all sides.
Look at the pathway that appears more and more dystopian over time:
- Big Government Controlled Heath Care that gets to decide who lives and who dies based on relentless purity tests
- Intentionally increasing the poverty rate and forcing total dependence on the Big Government. So that freedom is in name only.
- Removing the rank and file citizen's ability to arm themselves so there will be no resistance to this New World Order.
- Using Big Education to indoctrinate and control the language and what amounts to "right think" so new loyal waves of future woke shock troopers can be sent into the grinder like compliant cannon fodder.
- Barrage the masses with "state approved media" that ideologically separates you, the cattle, from the corporate donor overlords.
- Divide people by Culture Wars and Identity Politics, distracting the starving and desperate people from realizing they are being lined up against a wall.
3) The Team Blue Public Policy Blueprint - Create an out of control self inflicted disaster where there was none before, then force feed a "solution" of bigger government that takes more and more control away from the everyday working class people. Only career politicians, who have never worked a real job in their entire lives, like Biden, Pelosi, Newsom, Whitmer and the like could find a more brutal expensive way to literally give away money that will cost the people ten times more later as the can gets kicked down the road. Only an idiot like Granholm would demand Big Oil to kick up production while she simultaneously demands they be forced from the industry. Only an idiot like Granholm would ignore the national security threat posed by the continual tapping of the Strategic Oil Reserve. Only an idiot like Granholm would ignore that risk of fraud in more "stimulus", just like the last rounds of stimulus became criminal free-for-alls.
4) If this comes to fruition, this will happen sometime in October, before the Mid Terms, that looks more and more like a Red Tornado, to essentially "buy votes" even if it ends up devastating the practical financial future of generations of Americans to come, including the children of all of you here. Team Blue hopes there are enough low information voters out there who will magically believe this is "free from the government with no other consequences" and be totally OK being bribed with the blood and sweat of the middle class without realizing their effective purchasing power will take a complete free fall. Part of the pathway here is to potentially push this in Congress, knowing that the Republicans will oppose it, so Team Blue can spin the narrative to say the GOP stopped you from getting your free gas money to try to shave off Mid Term votes.
***************
In media optics, while I intentionally chose not to work in professional politics, I understood there was always a "nuclear option" for a losing Party that wanted to end democracy. But the pathway was unthinkable as it was nothing more than an outright attack on the people at large. Now I have to speak the quiet part out loud.
One prevailing theory was if you know you were going to lose the next general election, then destroy the society and culture in front of you. Inflict so much total damage that you can scapegoat one single patsy ( in this case Biden) and create so much bloodshed and devastation that when the other Party takes power, the cascade of damage will spill over. Then you can run non stop media barrages blaming the alternate Party for all the destruction to eventually retake power in the next cycle. The idea was to stop the alternating 8 year runs of POTUS and trade off 4 years to spin rip and run media optics to give you 8 years after that and use those 8 years to try to hammer fist all the laws and policies you can so you never have to give up power ever again.
I didn't think I'd see this strategy deployed in my lifetime. Because this is going to cost many Americans their lives. But no one is this stupid. Even this inept Administration. Even Susan Rice isn't this level of incompetent. And that's saying a lot.
As this is a topic that delves into a lot financial issues and the economy, I invite @Shula-holic , who has always been fair and balanced and reasonable in his economic discussion, to come aboard and share his thoughts here. He's an asset wherever he posts and he will class up this thread.
What do you think about these potential gas card rebates?
What do you think about the deeper complexities behind the policies being pushed forward by the Biden Administration here on out of control gas prices?
What is your solution to this disaster?
I'll leave this here for others to discuss.
Senior Biden administration officials are floating a plan to send Americans 'rebate' cards....The plan, which had previously been under consideration, comes as the administration is anxious to show movement on an issue Biden has called his top priority. ...Biden wrote oil companies demanding they refine more oil, Press Secretary Karine-Jean Pierre said it was their 'patriotic duty' to do so....after prices have hit $5 per gallon, with a $2 increase from a year ago.... In a hangup that encapsulates the challenges of 2022 amid the ongoing pandemic, aides have discovered that 'shortages in the U.S. chip industry would make it hard to produce enough rebate cards....Officials have also raised concerns there may be no way to prevent people from blowing the gift cards on other purchases. Even gas stations routinely sell chips, sodas, lottery tickets, and all manner of goods....If would likely require congressional approval, meaning Senate Republicans could try to filibuster an idea that might provide Biden a boost in the run-up to congressional elections.....
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said...'We want to address the price of gas and oil so that people can fill up their cars and heat their homes – and cool their homes down in the summer,'....referenced Biden's move to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve....She also spoke favorably of asking more states to waive gas taxes amid the crunch.....
By Geoff Earle 16:23 EDT, 17 June 2022
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10927825/Biden-administration-considering-sending-rebate-cards-millions-Americans-gas.html
TWEET: Jason Howerton XX@XXjason_howerton
This clip is ASTONISHING. Energy Sec. XX@XXJenGranholm demands energy companies to make massive investments to increase oil supply while simultaneously saying they want to shut them down over the next 5-10 years. WHAT IS THIS WHITE HOUSE?!
4:23 PM Jun 15, 2022
https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/1537214216989552641
Direct Headline: Stimulus Check Update: Is White House Looking to Send More Money?
...Another issue with stimulus checks is that they have been cited as one of the contributing factors to the current soaring inflation. Financial experts have blamed an influx of stimulus cash for causing an imbalance in supply and demand, because the amount of goods available do not currently meet the desires of Americans looking to spend more....In an attempt to better balance the supply and demand ratio, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its largest interest rate hike in 28 years. This move was done to make consumers spend less because of the higher rates. Americans having more stimulus money to spend could potentially work against this logic....
....In March, Axios reported the White House discussed gas cards but shelved the idea. The outlet cited an unnamed aide as saying even some House Democrats had expressed opposition to the concept. Other factors for not pursuing the plan at that time included not wanting to over-extend the IRS, who would be responsible for the distribution, and concern it would worsen inflation....A poll released last week from The Washington Post and George Mason University's Schar School found that around 44 percent of U.S. drivers said they have only partially filled their vehicle gas tank because of high gas prices....Meanwhile, an ABC News/Ipsos poll released earlier this month found that 74 percent of U.S. adults said gas prices will be an "extremely" or "very" important factor in how they will vote during the fall's congressional midterm elections.....
By Jon Jackson 6/17/22 3:20 PM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/stimulus-check-update-will-white-house-send-more-money-1716973
Direct Headline: White House exploration of gas rebate cards complicated by chip shortages
Those efforts, though, come amid early signs of a broader slowdown in the economy, which could ease inflationary pressures but also lead to higher joblessness and slower growth.... On Friday, oil prices suddenly dropped to a four-week low — a decline likely to push down gas prices — the latest indicator of a potential recession after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates this week to try to contain inflation....The week’s staggering decline in the stock market — coupled with weaker-than-expected jobless claims and retail sales data — also reflects the risks in the central bank’s move to crush inflation by tightening monetary conditions. Wall Street recorded its worst week since March 2020, the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as investors struggle to adjust to the Fed’s dramatic move.....
....Biden aides have also looked in recent days at invoking the Defense Production Act to move diesel and other refined products should localized shortages materialize, two people familiar with the matter said. Diesel prices have risen markedly, posing a major threat to the nation’s trucking and shipping industries...But energy markets hinted at the potential downsides of an economy that cools too quickly, with crude oil prices falling on Friday. “The good news is that crude oil prices, which drive gas prices, had a big down day,” said Bob McNally, a former energy official in the Bush administration. “But the reason for it is a bad reason — that people are fearing a recession....”
....Gas prices have been one of the most visible signs of inflation....Critics also say the idea could backfire by further pushing up prices by adding to consumer demand....Other proposals floated by policy experts include suspending the Jones Act, which would reduce shipping costs and make it cheaper to get gasoline from the Gulf Coast to the Eastern Seaboard, imposing price controls and banning exports of U.S. energy. But all these ideas have their own political and practical downsides, with the Jones Act supported by influential union groups and economists warning that any supply restrictions could exacerbate the problem. One person said the White House has also looked at limits on fuel exports, an idea first reported on Thursday by Bloomberg News, although that proposal does not appear to have gained much traction....
....“Not only is there not an extant solution, but nobody thinks there’s going to be a compelling solution,” an outside economic adviser to the White House said. “They’re fighting about narrative rather than fighting about substance, because realistically, what are they going to do?”
By Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager June 17, 2022 at 10:42 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/06/17/biden-gas-white-house/
************
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. - Ronald Reagan
Biden's Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Cecilia Rouse says - "All options are on the table"
Let's talk about what is really on the "table" here
1) If you want to even begin to start controlling inflation, then you have to stop printing money like you are going to wall paper the Moon with it.
2) There is an unsettling but undeniable new normal where Team Blue has just declared open war on the middle class. Wealthy "elites" and retired geriatrics like myself with "Old Man FU money" still make out OK because our asset base tends to hold/retain their value even in clearly government inflicted tough economic times. Many of the very poor and at the poverty level, not all but far too many, don't pay taxes, don't work, and get free gifts and prizes from the government. There's limited to no impact here for them as long as Team Blue stays in power. But the middle class gets a triple shot of BOHICA as they are getting financially massacred from all sides.
Look at the pathway that appears more and more dystopian over time:
- Big Government Controlled Heath Care that gets to decide who lives and who dies based on relentless purity tests
- Intentionally increasing the poverty rate and forcing total dependence on the Big Government. So that freedom is in name only.
- Removing the rank and file citizen's ability to arm themselves so there will be no resistance to this New World Order.
- Using Big Education to indoctrinate and control the language and what amounts to "right think" so new loyal waves of future woke shock troopers can be sent into the grinder like compliant cannon fodder.
- Barrage the masses with "state approved media" that ideologically separates you, the cattle, from the corporate donor overlords.
- Divide people by Culture Wars and Identity Politics, distracting the starving and desperate people from realizing they are being lined up against a wall.
3) The Team Blue Public Policy Blueprint - Create an out of control self inflicted disaster where there was none before, then force feed a "solution" of bigger government that takes more and more control away from the everyday working class people. Only career politicians, who have never worked a real job in their entire lives, like Biden, Pelosi, Newsom, Whitmer and the like could find a more brutal expensive way to literally give away money that will cost the people ten times more later as the can gets kicked down the road. Only an idiot like Granholm would demand Big Oil to kick up production while she simultaneously demands they be forced from the industry. Only an idiot like Granholm would ignore the national security threat posed by the continual tapping of the Strategic Oil Reserve. Only an idiot like Granholm would ignore that risk of fraud in more "stimulus", just like the last rounds of stimulus became criminal free-for-alls.
4) If this comes to fruition, this will happen sometime in October, before the Mid Terms, that looks more and more like a Red Tornado, to essentially "buy votes" even if it ends up devastating the practical financial future of generations of Americans to come, including the children of all of you here. Team Blue hopes there are enough low information voters out there who will magically believe this is "free from the government with no other consequences" and be totally OK being bribed with the blood and sweat of the middle class without realizing their effective purchasing power will take a complete free fall. Part of the pathway here is to potentially push this in Congress, knowing that the Republicans will oppose it, so Team Blue can spin the narrative to say the GOP stopped you from getting your free gas money to try to shave off Mid Term votes.
***************
In media optics, while I intentionally chose not to work in professional politics, I understood there was always a "nuclear option" for a losing Party that wanted to end democracy. But the pathway was unthinkable as it was nothing more than an outright attack on the people at large. Now I have to speak the quiet part out loud.
One prevailing theory was if you know you were going to lose the next general election, then destroy the society and culture in front of you. Inflict so much total damage that you can scapegoat one single patsy ( in this case Biden) and create so much bloodshed and devastation that when the other Party takes power, the cascade of damage will spill over. Then you can run non stop media barrages blaming the alternate Party for all the destruction to eventually retake power in the next cycle. The idea was to stop the alternating 8 year runs of POTUS and trade off 4 years to spin rip and run media optics to give you 8 years after that and use those 8 years to try to hammer fist all the laws and policies you can so you never have to give up power ever again.
I didn't think I'd see this strategy deployed in my lifetime. Because this is going to cost many Americans their lives. But no one is this stupid. Even this inept Administration. Even Susan Rice isn't this level of incompetent. And that's saying a lot.
As this is a topic that delves into a lot financial issues and the economy, I invite @Shula-holic , who has always been fair and balanced and reasonable in his economic discussion, to come aboard and share his thoughts here. He's an asset wherever he posts and he will class up this thread.
What do you think about these potential gas card rebates?
What do you think about the deeper complexities behind the policies being pushed forward by the Biden Administration here on out of control gas prices?
What is your solution to this disaster?
I'll leave this here for others to discuss.
