A federal gas tax holiday is “absolutely worth exploring” to reduce gas costs, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
Average gas prices surpassed $5 per gallon for the first time last week, and have since fallen somewhat to $4.98 as of Sunday.
When asked if a gas tax holiday was a possible short-term solution by anchor George Stephanopoulos, Yellen responded, ‘President Biden wants to do everything he possibly can to help consumers.’
Gas prices have skyrocketed, plainly putting a strain on people.’
‘He stands ready to work with Congress, and that is absolutely a notion worth exploring,’ she continued.
Yellen stated once more that inflation is ‘unacceptably high,’ with prices up 8.6 percent this May over last, but she did not believe a recession was ‘inevitable.’
According to a Conference Board survey released last week, three-quarters of CEOs worldwide foresee a global recession within the next 12 to 18 months as a result of Russia’s terrible war in Ukraine.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has cautioned that the American economy will suffer still more damage before inflation returns to its 41-year high.
In a bid to control inflation, the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 0.75 percent on Wednesday, the largest increase since 1994. Last month, Powell cautioned that further rate hikes are anticipated in the near future.
‘Inflation has clearly surprised to the upside during the last year, and further surprises could be on the way.’ As a result, we must be quick to respond to incoming data,’ he said.
‘We believe that the public generally views us as quite likely to succeed in bringing inflation down to 2%.’ ‘And that is crucial,’ he said. ‘It will take some time, but we will get inflation back down.’
FINA President Husain Al-Musallam confirmed the news on Sunday afternoon.
‘I don’t want any athlete to be told they can’t compete at the highest level,’ Al-Musallam said today at his organization’s congress.
‘I will form a working group to create an open category at our meetings.’
‘We will be the first federation to accomplish it,’ says the president.
Transgender competitors must have completed their transition by the age of 12 in order to compete in women’s contests under the new rules.
After being placed to the members of 152 national federations with voting rights who had convened for the congress in the Puskas Arena, the policy was passed with a nearly 71% majority.
Transgender rights have been a prominent topic of discussion as sports strive to strike a balance between diversity and preventing unfair advantage.
The controversy heated up after University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas won the women’s 500-yard freestyle earlier this year, becoming the first transgender NCAA champion in Division I history.
Thomas swam for three seasons for the Pennsylvanian men’s team before beginning hormone replacement treatment in the spring of 2019.
A number of doctors have claimed that Lia Thomas and other trans female athletes will always have an unfair advantage in certain sports because they cannot erase adolescence, when their biological male bodies were inundated with testosterone.
Even within his own party, Biden has come under increasing pressure to suspend the federal gas tax, which is currently 18.3 cents per gallon, in order to drive down prices.
According to The Hill, Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer addressed a letter to President Biden this week advising him against taking such a step.
According to the Oregon member, doing so would result in a “huge gap” in the infrastructure and transportation budget. According to financial modeling from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, suspending the federal gas tax for the remainder of the fiscal year would leave the Highway Transportation Fund $20 billion short.
Some states, such as Maryland, Georgia, and New York, have already moved to repeal their gas taxes. Some believe that Biden’s appeal for other states to do the same would be a beneficial move by the White House to help reduce strain on Americans’ wallets.
Biden’s economic team has considered a gas tax holiday and is scheduled to meet again later this week.
Biden has already depleted the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which had no influence on gas prices. Last week, he sent a letter to the CEOs of the country’s biggest petroleum companies, threatening to exercise his “emergency power” if they did not act to decrease prices.
According to a letter received by Axios from Biden, the differential ‘of more than 15% at the pump is the result of historically large profit margins for refining oil into gasoline, diesel, and other refined products.’
‘Since the beginning of the year, refiners’ margins for refining gasoline and diesel have tripled, and are now at their greatest levels ever recorded,’ he wrote to Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods.
‘Government tools and emergency authority to enhance refinery capacity and output in the near term, and to ensure that our country is adequately supplied,’ he wrote.
‘I have already used emergency powers to carry out the largest Strategic Petroleum Reserve release in history, expand access to E15 (gasoline containing 15% ethanol), and approve the use of the Defense Production Act to supply reliable inputs into energy production.’
‘I am willing to utilize all measures at my disposal, as necessary, to eliminate hurdles to providing Americans with affordable, secure energy supplies,’ he added.
While the White House has consistently stated that it is open to suggestions on how to reduce rising tax rates, Biden’s Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo took a more defeatist stance this week, saying there was little the administration could do to help.
When asked what Biden might do, Raimondo said, ‘Unfortunately, it is the brutal fact.’
‘This is mostly due to Putin’s hostility,’ Raimondo added. ‘You know, since Putin pushed soldiers to Ukraine’s border, gas prices have risen by more than $1.40 a gallon, and the President is asking Congress and others for potential solutions.’
‘However, as you say, the reality is that there isn’t much more that can be done,’ she added.