Rant #1,231: Giving Me Gas Even Thinking About It

This do-nothing Congress is good for one thing--doing things that hurt families who are already hurting.

And I mean the middle class.

Whether you are talking about the past government shutdown and furlough, or something that has been recently proposed that I am going to talk about in this Rant, these Congressmen have proven time and time again that they don't care about their constituents at all, and they only care about their own personal agendas and themselves.

The latest proof of this is that two clowns who happen to be Congressmen have proposed an increase to the national gas tax that will add 12 cents to the already bloated amounts for a gallon of gas that we currently pay.

The plan created by Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) would raise the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4-cents-per-gallon diesel tax each by 12 cents over the next two years, and then index the taxes to keep pace with inflation. The increase would be applied in two increments of six cents each.

The rise in gas taxes is tied into Congress' inability to pay for highway and transit programs.

Gas is already taxed to incredible limits, and in places like California and New York, gas prices reflect the fact that we seem to be paying more on taxes than on the actual gas we are filling up our cars with.

And wouldn't you know it that two Senators, each of which probably hasn't driven a car since they were elected to their posts, would propose a further tax on this hottest and most important of commodities?

And you just know who is going to suffer the most from this--it won't be the wealthy, because they can absorb such an increase better than the rest of us, and it won't be the poor, because they are the least users of gas.

It will be the middle class, and to propose such an increase during a period of turmoil like we are in today is, well, pretty heinous.

And if the Senators don't already know it, when you up gas prices, you up the prices on all other things that we need to live, including just about every other commodity, in particular, on food.

It will cost those trucks that bring products to your local supermarket a bit more to drive to those stores, so guess who the increases will be passed down to?

Customers, of course.

So while you are paying way over $4 a gallon for gas, you will also be paying extra for lettuce, for TV dinners, and for peanut butter.

And it doesn't stop there.

Anything that has to be trucked to your local stores will garner a price increase if this ridiculous increase goes through--and from what I read, this action has bi-partisan support yet.

Funny, this Congress has done nothing to help the American people. It has its lowest rating in history--the last I saw, just 16 percent of the American people think they are doing a good job--and they have helped to make President Obama's tenure as the President a mockery (he has done that too, but that is another story for another time).

If this thing passes, and even if it doesn't--even the thought of this is pretty obnoxious--there is only one thing the average American middle class citizen can do.

And that is to vote out Murphy, Corker and any other legislator who backs this plan.

For that matter, whether they back this plan or not, I think it is high time that we voted out all incumbents when their time comes up, because they have proven that they have other interests than the people they are supposed to be representing.

Heck, if Eric Cantor can be voted out, any of these other clowns can too, and I think it is high time that the American people voted with their heads and did just that.

It is so simple, yet such a complex thing for people to do.

Simply vote out whoever is in office when you go to the polls, regardless of party.

We have to show that we have had enough.

I know that I have, and I will do just that come Election Day.