America's Talking - Episode 34: Senate considers suspending federal gas tax, but critics are wary

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

Senate considers suspending federal gas tax, but critics are wary. Poll: Majority of Americans unhappy with current immigration levels. Number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck jumps 7 percent, report shows. Durham filing alleges Hillary Clinton's team ‘mined’ White House servers to dig up dirt on Trump. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The average national gas price right now is $3.51.51 per gallon, which is up a full dollar from the same time last year. Welcome to America and Focus. I'm Cole McNeely, General Manager of America's Talking Network. American Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. You can listen to America and Focus and all of our podcast at AmericasTalking.com. That's America's talking.com. Now here's your host, Dan McAulb. Thank you, Cole, and welcome to America and Focus. podcast where we talk about the issues from our nation's capital, The Matter to you. I'm Dan Michaelip, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. America in Focus is brought to you by America's Talking Network. You're tired of the device of rhetoric coming from echo chambers in our country

today. America's Talking Network is for you. America's Talking Network is a new podcast hub where you can find new civil conversations and all of the Center Squares podcast. Go to America's Talking.com to check out all of the available podcasts. Once again, that's America's talking.com. Joining me today, as he does every week, is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey Monday is President's Day. That's a holiday for many across the country. Do you have a favorite president? A favorite president. I mean, there's so many to choose from Dan. You know, I have a friend whose favorite president is Calvin Coolidge, because Calvin Coolidge did very little and exercised his executive authority almost never.

And in his mind, that is the proper role of the president. But I think I probably, after all my meandering, have to land on the one only George Washington, the father of the country, war hero. Just the more you read about him, the more you disrespect him and how he led against really impossible odds against the British Empire. and maybe most importantly step down after eight years when he could have easily become king. All right. That's a pretty fair and same. Boring answer.

Oh, whatever. What are you going to fake? What, Trump? Is that your favorite president? Well, I've been in Illinois for the past 17 years, so I'd have to go with Abraham Lincoln, I suppose. Do you remember when he was, were you at his inaugural? Not quite that old case. But thank you.

I thought it had some sentimental personal value for you. I'm sorry. Member of the Illinois legislature represented Illinois in Congress before deciding to run for president. Of course, he was the president during the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves, been to the Abraham Lincoln Museum. in Springfield, Illinois a couple of different times.

So, yeah, might be another easy way out of answering that question. But how can you go wrong with Abraham Lincoln? Yeah, you talked about the fair and easy answer. Then you picked Abraham Lincoln. So, you know, I don't know if there's a glass house over here. But that's a good choice. He's definitely one of my favorites as well, for sure. All right, Casey, let's get into the news of the week.

We've been talking about inflation and how. how it's affected prices across the country for the past year, among them gas prices. Now in Washington, there is momentum gaining for temporarily suspending the nation's 18 cent per gallon gas tax. Tell us about what's going on here. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that all of our listeners have noticed that getting a gallon of gas has become a lot more expensive no matter where you live. And in certain states like Illinois probably in California for sure in New York, those rate, those gas prices are rising at even higher rates. And really, especially since Biden has taken office, gas prices have begun to soar.

So AAA, which keeps track of, you know, nationwide gas prices say have basically kept track and say the average national gas price right now is $3.51 per gallon, which is up a full dollar from the same time last year. you know, we've talked a lot about inflation. I think we'll talk more about it. But one of the biggest drivers of inflation has been just skyrocketing energy prices. Energy prices have increased by about a third in the last 12 months, which is just, is crazy. You know, your electric bill, you know, your heating bill, your filling up your gas take is all become a lot more expensive. And so Congress is kind of scrambling on this. Biden is, you know, worried about it.

You know, it's one of the fundamental rules of old school politics is don't mess with gas prices. You know, that affects everyone. People don't like high gas prices and they blame whoever is in charge. So there's some Senate Democrats trying to scramble and figure this problem out. And they've actually proposed suspending the federal gas tax. People, I think some people might not even know there is a gas tax or a federal one. There's also state gas taxes. But the federal gas tax is about 18 cents per gallon.

used for highway funding. But there's some catches. You might say, oh, great, getting rid of the gas tax. What's the problem? Well, one is you just passed an infrastructure bill, and then you're going to cut one of the big sources of highway funding. Trouin more plus of infrastructure bill, right? Right.

So it's not clear. I think, you know, you may cut the gas tax and have to hit people somewhere else, so that may not be good. And then also, it looks like this proposed gas tax. will go just right through. Yes, you guessed it the November midterms. So right after you vote for the new party, and you might see your gas prices spike back up.

There's plenty of people who blame Biden's oil and gas policies for at least part of the rise in gas prices. When he first took office, he canceled the permits to build a Keystone, pipeline. He banned new permits on oil and gas drilling on federal lands. He essentially begged OPEC nations to increase production under President Trump. The U.S. became energy independent. But now the president, because of his policies, was asking other nations halfway across the world to produce more oil and gas.

Yeah, what do you make? Is that somewhat contradictory, or what do you make of that? Yeah, I mean, it's, Democrats are very motivated by reducing the use of fossil fuels. And obviously, there's a lot of climate change, reasoning, and language behind why they're doing that. But the thing is, this country still runs on fossil fuels. And there's big consequences when you just make big unilateral decisions to cut off our major sources of things like oil and gas. And so there often also tends to be a little

bit of hypocrisy. So in the example that you laid out, it's not that we actually cut our consumption. It's just that we stopped producing it here with American jobs. And then we started asking foreign, you know, nations with questionable human rights records to ship the oil here, which is actually much less efficient. You can imagine just getting the oil in America and already having it here versus having to ship it across the world, which is actually, you know, uses a lot of fossil fuels to ship such huge quantities. And so there's often a kind of inefficiency if you look a little bit beneath a lot of these efforts towards climate change. I think we both, you know, we want to have a healthy planet. We want to have, you know, unpluted air and water and be in a renewable

energy landscape. But, you know, often politicians don't have the, really the knowledge, understanding of these issues or the, you know, the support or the technology doesn't exist to really do this in the right way. And so it sounds good to cut America, you know, to cut federal oil drilling. That'll solve the problem. But it's, we're drilling just as much oil, but it's overseas and we're having to ship it here. The same is true with some new, you know, there's like the electric cars issue. I mean, there's a lot of benefits to electric cars, but they also run on rare earth minerals that are, you know, mined in parts of Africa with child slave labor. And so, you know, it's a, I think the reason I bring all this up is one side is often demonized

much more than the other. But I think what we do reporting on these issues, it's often a little more complicated than some of the moralistic decrees that are made by one party. And you also have the looming crisis in Russia and the Ukraine. Yes. This hasn't been a major focal point of what's going on there, but Russia supplies much of Europe. Yes. With its oil and with European countries to varying degrees stepping up and saying that they're going to help defend Ukraine and blasting Russia, there's speculation that Russia could cut off its oil supplies to Europe, so they would be dependent on other nations, and perhaps including the U.S.

That could create if Russia does, in fact, invade Ukraine, and I should say we're recording this on Friday, February 18th. Some national security folks say an invasion could happen at any moment. So if Russia does, in fact, invade Ukraine and cut up oil supplies there, energy prices could skyrocket even more. No, for sure, absolutely. and you know, Russia is a big oil supplier. And it just all, you may say, well, we don't get all our oil from Russia. Well, it'll affect the market overall. And all these other nations that are used to getting oil from Russia will then go to some of the people that we get it from, which will raise the prices.

And there'll be even more pressure on this. And so, you know, Republicans have not really supported this measure to cut the gas tax. What they really proposed as an alternative is, hey, let's drill in America. Let's have Americans working. There's many states' economies that are heavily reliant on oil and gas jobs. Like, you know, Texas, there's some southwestern states that are really reliant on oil and gas, you know. And so they would say, let's put those guys to work. Yeah.

Yeah. And I mean, a lot of our state, you know, at the cindersquare.com, we do a lot of great state, yeah, state coverage. In New Mexico, for it is a good example. I mean, their state budget is very reliant on oil and gas money, you know. So there's a lot of implications. when you just say, well, we're going to be, we're going to, quote, unquote, do the right thing and cut off oil funding or oil drilling, especially when places like China are still doing it at rapid, maybe even accelerated rates. And, you know, I mean, China's use of coal mines is so extravagant and just goes so far beyond anything that New Mexico is doing, you know, through oil and gas. So, again, it's more complicated.

And it just raises the counterpoint of the Republicans, which is let's not be relying on others, especially when the world. world is so volatile right now. And let's be clear. There's still plenty of oil production going on in the U.S. Biden's policies have made it more difficult to expand oil drilling and new regulations, new taxes on oil industries. So anyway, this is obviously most Americans care about what they're paying at the gas pump. So we'll be following this story at the center square.com. Let's move forward. Speaking of inflation, Casey, a new study out this week that says more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck despite rising wages.

What's this about? Yeah, it's a really interesting study from Lending Club, which found that 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, which is an increase of seven points since May of last year. So, you know, it looked at different groups like baby boomers, which, you know, you would hope would be the kind of who have kind of got their finances in order by this point and are ready for retirement, right? They're living 54% of baby boomers and seniors are living paycheck to paycheck, which is even more scary because they don't have the same ability to kind of rebound the way Gen Z or millennial could. So we're seeing a majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. it's increased. And since Biden took office, to what degree that could be, you know, attributed to him.

You know, you could ask about that. The pandemic really hit a lot of people pretty hard. A lot of people lost their jobs because of the COVID shutdowns, which in retrospect, it was proven that they really did almost nothing to stop the pandemic. So if anything, you know, this could be a good, you know, learning lesson for us. I mean, I think a lot of people wanted to take the pandemic seriously in the beginning and we're open to, you know, not going out to eat for a few weeks if that's what it took. But that kind of spiraled and cost a lot of people their jobs.

And now far more people are living in a paycheck to paycheck. And so you look at this. The other part of study says, Gen Z, for those living paycheck to paycheck, have a savings at $1,158, which, you know, is not enough to survive any kind of real emergency health crisis. I mean, you get a great point there. You veer in a nice truck and you're in trouble. $1,000. And in the longer term, you're not able to set money aside with the goal of eventually retiring.

So savings are down. When you're having to spend all of your weekly paycheck just on everyday bills, you can't set money aside with the goal of long-term retirement plans. Right. And it's important to look at stats like these because, you know, I studied economics in college. I write about, you know, the economy a lot. And there's this temptation among economic experts and professors and even the media

to say, oh, GDP is up. This, you know, GDP is increased and the stock market's doing great. Therefore, the economy's doing great. And it's like, well, our regular people, people doing great. You know, are average Americans, do they have money? Are they saving? Are they in debt? I think that's a much better measure of the economy for, you know, because sometimes GDP increase can go mostly to hedge fund guys. I mean, and so it's more complicated than some of these top line numbers like GDP in the stock market. We want to know, you know, we cover the taxpayer focus. So is the

average taxpayer is, are they doing well financially? Are they able to save for their kids' colleges and for retirement, are they being crushed by the taxes? Are they able to find good jobs when they go to the grocery store? How much the things cost? So I hope that we've done a good job covering it. But that's kind of the economic angle I'm most interested in because that's our listeners. And I think the media kind of neglects that angle often and focus is just on the Wall Street and on the Dow when that doesn't always impact people's day-to-day lives. another story that we've been covering quite a bit at the center square.com and talked about on this podcast, Casey, is the illegal immigration border crisis since President Biden's taken office, illegal immigration, southern border crossings have skyrocketed. Now there's a new pullout this week. How do Americans feel about the immigration situation?

Yeah, this is definitely this is another one of those issues. has changed drastically since Biden took office. Some things remain the same. Some have changed. Immigration is one that's changed a lot. And Gallup released new polling data this week, which showed that 58% of surveyed Americans are dissatisfied with the current level of immigration.

Only 34% are satisfied. That's an eight point increase in dissatisfaction. And really, like, since Biden, you know, has really taken over. And so it's interesting to see that core. correlation eight points eight percent of people are you know much more unhappy by immigration seven percent are more are living paycheck to paycheck and so multiple fronts americans are feeling the pinch even though the pandemic was you know you can't attribute us all the pandemic because the pandemic's going on a couple of years now and so uh the

the poll says that last year those dissatisfied were about equally is likely to favor an increase as a decrease because theoretically if they're not happy by immigration they could want more, right? But now it's much more skewed to those who are unhappy, this majority who are unhappy, think the immigration levels are too high. Since Biden's taken office, there has been a huge spike in illegal immigrants coming across the border. I think it looks, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is arresting about 3,000 people a day.

And that doesn't even count all the ones they're not catching. Right, right. Yeah. And so in 2021, Customs and Border Patrol reported nearly two million encounters of people trying to cross the border illegally. But as you said, that number does not count the ones that are successfully making it across the border undetected. Yeah. And I think this is another issue back to that theme of what's impacting real people. You know, if you live in Manhattan, and you can just.

say like, oh, you know, my condo's great. The, you know, the Dow is great. Therefore, the economy is great. America's doing good. But if you live in a Texas border town and your family is living paycheck to paycheck now and groceries cost more and there's way more people like running through your backyard every day to get across, you know, to get up north into the United States, I mean, it's just a different picture, right?

We want to cover the whole range of American experiences. But, I mean, I'd be curious. you've you know immigration has really been such a it's been a problem and a top issue for a long time I'm curious to hear from you how you feel like this compares to previous administrations or if you've seen a trend um I mean I think in recent memory we know that immigration did drop under president Trump but he really made it a priority in a way that most presidents haven't so how do you how do you see this comparing to, you know. Well, 2020, yeah, 2021 and in the beginning of 2022, I've never seen anything like it. You've also, you have the Mexican cartels who are trafficking people and illegal

drugs. The fentanyl crisis in this country exploded in the past year. And it was largely because of a Mexican cartels smuggling the deadly narcotic across the open borders, the southern border in Mexico, from Mexico into the U.S. And we have a correspondent who's been covering the border crisis for us, who's who talked to, who has talked to local sheriffs and local mayors in these border towns. But let me make it clear, too. It's not just a border community problem.

Texas has hosted, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has hosted governors and attorneys general from across the country, mostly Republicans, who they say, you know, as far north as Kansas and Montana and Wyoming, who they say they've noticed a vast increase in fentanyl distribution in their state. largely because of the Mexican cartels, having an easier time smuggling it across the border since President Biden took office. So it is a, not everyone is willing to call it a crisis, but based on the reporting I've seen and the conversations I've had with the correspondent who's been covering this for us,

it is a very real crisis. Yeah, I think that fentanyl thing is an undercover crisis because there's so many overdoses you don't have to look forward to just see that this has really become an epidemic nationwide. And if you trace it back to a source, you're absolutely right that it is coming mostly across the southern border. And if you're really going to do anything substantive to address it, you're going to have to at least cut down on just the sheer quantity that's coming across. And I think maybe the last thing on this is that so far what we've seen from the Biden administration is kind of ignoring the issue. I think, you know, Biden has done almost nothing really on the border.

So I want to say he's done bad things or good things. He just has done nothing. He has made it harder for ICE, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to deport illegal immigrants. But overall, he hasn't done very much. And I think he doesn't want to talk about the issue. It's not a winning issue for Democrats right now. He would rather talk about, you know, child tax credit and holding back Russia because those are issues he feels comfortable on.

But, you know, we'll keep. covering him. And maybe he will feel the pressure before the next election to take some kind of action on the border. But right now, we just, I don't know. Well, just one last point on this, too. Texas Governor Greg Abbott last year launched Operation Lone Star because, as you said, the federal government wasn't prioritizing the crisis at the border. So he launched an operation in his state to use state resources. This should be a federal government issue. because it involves the border, but to use state resources to try and reduce this illegal immigration that's going on. And now you've got Democrats in Congress, Democrats in Texas,

who are saying that that operation is illegal and needs to end this. It's almost as if they don't care about what's going on at the border. Yeah, I mean, there's kind of a theme here, which is that there's a trend towards kind of moralizing that we see in the Democratic Party. when a lot of issues are more complicated. It's like on climate change was the example earlier, you can kind of take the moral high ground. But when you look into it, it's a little more complicated.

And I think there's the same with the borders. There's kind of this faux moral high ground to not be racist and to just be an accepting country, right? Which sounds good and sounds moral. When you look into it, it actually has a real consequences. And maybe there's a smarter way to go about it than just making kind of generalized edicts

about how we should be a good accepting nation, maybe it's a little more complicated than that okay case we have just about two more minutes to talk about a fairly complex um topic um uh that much of the media is ignoring uh a bombshell report this week from um from john durham regarding uh the the the killery clinton campaign spying on the trump campaign and perhaps even the trump white house what would break this down for us in in as simple of terms as you can. Yeah, I'll try to. I think this is a very interesting story.

You know, former President Trump called this bigger than Watergate, which may be hyperbole, but it does seem to be a pretty good story. And you're absolutely right that the mainstream media has largely ignored it,

although it's becoming increasingly more difficult to do that. So the, the shortest summary I can make of this is that when he became president, Donald Trump appointed Durham, John Durham to investigate where all this Russia stuff came from in the first place.

You know, we know. The initial option was that Trump was partnering with Russia to fix the 2000-16 election in which Trump beat Hillary Clinton. Right. And the FBI investigated that. So Trump launched an investigation to find out why the FBI investigated that because obviously he says it's not true at all. And so he wanted to know where it came from. And so Durham, the guy in charge of that, released. new court filings, which basically alleged that one of Hillary Clinton's lawyers campaign,

one of the Clinton campaign's lawyers, had basically hired a, had been working with a tech firm to mine White House servers to kind of find Russian evidence. So basically, and on Trump towers. And then had been handing that information over to the FBI, but wasn't telling, the FBI, like how he was getting it. And he lied to the FBI allegedly about that. And he has been charged formally with that. And so basically, you probably remember when everyone kind of laughed at Trump for saying he was being spied on by the FBI and his campaign was being spied on. Well, it looks like that's, looks like he was totally right on that one actually. And he was being spied on. And one of Hillary's lawyers might actually go to jail for it. All right. Well,

but the story will also be following at thecenter square.com. But Casey, we have run out of time. We'll talk to you next week.