Gas prices giveth, gas prices taketh away.
The Biden administration is promoting a claim that voters should interpret the falling price of fuel as a monthly raise.
DEMOCRATS PREPARE TO SELL BIDEN AS A CONSEQUENTIAL PRESIDENT THIS FALL
White House staffers sent an email to reporters Friday afternoon with the subject line “ICYMI: America Just Got A $100-A-Month Raise,” including a link to a CNN story bearing that headline.
“Next time you stop at a gas station, think of it as a $100-a-month tax cut. Or a maybe $100-a-month raise,” reads an excerpt from the story.
The piece notes that gas prices hit $5.02 a gallon on average on June 14 and have since fallen to $3.92, according to AAA. About 28% of stations are now charging less than $3.50 a gallon.
“President Biden has taken decisive action to lower prices at the pump, and the current drop in gas prices is the fastest decline in over a decade,” reads a statement included in the email. “Thanks to that decline, Americans are collectively spending around $400 million less each day than they would if gas prices had stayed at their peak.”
It observes that the typical U.S. household uses about 90 gallons of gas a month, so a drop of $1.10 in prices equals a savings of $98.82.
However, gas prices hovered around $2.60 a gallon the day President Joe Biden took office, indicating that people have endured an overall tax hike, or a pay cut, during his presidency. The hike would amount to roughly $119 a month when comparing inauguration day gas prices to today’s gas prices using the math indicated in the CNN story.
The Biden administration has made a series of dubious mathematical claims of late, including that a beefed-up IRS would not result in more audits for the middle class, that there was 0% inflation in July, and that two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product growth does not signal a recession.
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Conservatives have roundly criticized the claims, with Job Creators Network unveiling a new Times Square billboard comparing Biden to Pinocchio for his questionable claims.