A newspaper editorial questions the motives behind the support of Nevada's two U.S. senators for suspending the federal gasoline tax. | Pixabay/Rudy and Peter Skitterians
A newspaper editorial questions the motives behind the support of Nevada's two U.S. senators for suspending the federal gasoline tax. | Pixabay/Rudy and Peter Skitterians
As inflation causes gasoline prices to continue on their upward trend in Nevada, Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen have joined other Democrats in a proposal to suspend the federal gasoline tax, which is at 18.4 cents per gallon.
"Nevadans are struggling with rising prices at the pump," Cortez Masto tweeted Feb. 12. "That’s why I’m calling for a suspension on the federal gas tax so that we can lower gas prices and bring relief to hardworking families."
But with Cortez Masto being up for re-election this fall, there is skepticism as to the motive behind her legislation support.
An editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal called support by Cortez Masto and Rosen for the gas-tax suspension an act to boost "political fortunes" and "generate headlines" in an effort to gain votes in the coming election.
"Both Sen. Cortez Masto and Sen. Rosen describe themselves to Nevada voters as pragmatic moderates," the editorial said. "Yet once safely inside the Beltway, they have rarely dared to stray from their party’s extremist orthodoxy on spending and energy policy."
The federal gas tax sits at 18.4 cents per gallon and has been in effect since 1993, the newspaper said. The money is put into a fund that goes towards paying for highway construction projects and public transportation, the editorial said.
Fuel prices in Nevada are pushing toward the the $4 mark, according to the American Automobile Association. Regular gas costs an average of $3.92 per gallon and diesel costs an average of $4.04.
Neither Cortez Masto nor Rosen "raised a peep of concern about the Build Back Better proposal, which would spend another $2 trillion of money the country doesn’t have even as inflation soars," the Review-Journal editorial said.
President Joe Biden's Build Back Better proposal "contains an escalating tax on methane emissions that would almost certainly be passed on to consumers. The Institute for Energy Research estimates the new levy would increase natural gas heating costs by 17% and boost price pressures on gasoline," leaving half of Americans who use natural gas to stay warm to "bear the brunt of these higher costs," the editorial said.
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