President Joe Biden will ask Congress on Thursday to suspend for three months a federal tax on gasoline prices that has soared, angering Americans, just months before the midterm elections.
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The average price of a gallon of gasoline reached a record of 5 dollars in the United States ($4,968 on Wednesday), up from about $3 a year ago
Biden’s proposal
The president is aware of the significant challenge that high gasoline prices pose to working families.
The White House wants to eliminate a federal tax of 18 cents per gallon (3.78 liters) until September and ask the states, which also tax gasoline at the pump, to do the same in order to “directly relieve consumers Americans suffering from (Vladimir) Putin’s price gouging,” senior Biden administration officials said.
The rise in prices is having repercussions on the national economy, dragging the US president’s approval rating, which sits below 40%.
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“The president is aware of the significant challenge high gas prices pose to working families,” as gasoline costs “increased dramatically around the world, by nearly $2 a gallon since Putin massed his troops in the Ukraine’s borders,” the officials said.
Biden “understands that this suspension of the gasoline tax is not going to offset by itself the increased costs that we are seeing,” they admitted.
“But he believes that at this unique time when the war in Ukraine imposes costs on American families, Congress must do what it can to relieve those families,” they added.
The cost for the infrastructure
The suspension of this 18-cent federal tax, along with the 24-cent-per-gallon diesel tax during the summer travel season, is expected to costs about 10,000 million dollars to the road infrastructure fundnormally financed by these levies.
The administration ensures that other income can offset the fund’s deficit. Likewise, the White House asks states, which also impose different levels of taxes on gasoline, to temporarily remove their levies or provide compensation mechanisms to motorists.
Several states have already done so, such as Connecticut and New York. On average, states charge 30 cents in taxes per gallon of gasoline.
But according to analysts, some 46 states have not yet acted, including California, where gasoline is the most taxed and the most expensive, exceeding 6 dollars a gallon.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP
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