Democrats in Congress are being mocked for celebrating the news that gas prices have dropped by 2 cents per gallon.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee tweeted out a graph that featured half-cent increments that showed that gas had barely dipped in price, writing, “Thanks, @JoeBiden.”
Criticism came quickly. Even “The Washington Post” ripped the tweet as potentially being “the worst defense of the Biden administration yet,” noting that “since Biden took office, the price of gas has risen more than a dollar on this same measure.”
Notable responses included:
- Daniel Dale, CNN “fact-checker”: “This is parody-level misleading-with-axes stuff.”
- Glenn Kessler, Washington Post “fact-checker”: “What an utterly ridiculous chart. Truly dumb.”
- Josh Jordan, statistician: “I absolutely cannot get over the @dccc thinking it was a good idea to tweet that gas prices have dropped TWO CENTS and thanking Joe Biden for it. Because families experience [sic] inflation are going to be grateful that gas prices have dropped two cents after rising $1 this year. … Who thought this was a good idea?! First, Biden is taking credit for gas plummeting due to the Omicron news. Second, this chart is beyond misleading… just back out to see the bigger picture. Yikes.”
- Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.): “Gas prices are up more than 50% since Dec 2020 and Dems are demanding you thank them. Here’s TWO CENTS: After you delete your tweet, restart Keystone, start tapping more into our own domestic energy supply, and stop fast-tracking foreign pipelines abroad.”
- Congressional Leadership Fund: “Wow! Don’t spend those two pennies all in one place, kids.”
- House GOP Policy: “This is just embarrassing.”
- Mark Hemingway, RealClearInvestigations: “Some graphic designer spent like an hour doing this, and no one in charge at the DCCC said, ‘this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen’?”
- Logan Hall, The Daily Caller: “How will you spend the two cents the democratic party saved you this week?”
- Jeff Duncan (R-S.S.): “Retweeting this account is a first for me. But if this is the message they want communicated to the American people, then I’m happy to lend a hand.”
- Ben Casselman, The New York Times: “This is the chart-crime equivalent of a Nigerian email scam. It’s so blatant that you kind of have to admire the sheer chutzpah.”
- Mary Miller (R-Ill.): “I’ll combine the two cents I saved on gas with that 16 cents I saved on my 4th of July BBQ and put a down payment on a pack of gum. Thanks, Brandon!”
The 2-cent victory lap for Democrats comes as hundreds of thousands of “I Did That!” stickers, accompanying a photo of President Biden, appear on gas pumps across the nation. So common are the stickets now that convenience stores are posting signs acknowledging the increase in gas prices but asking consumers to avoid putting stickers of Joe Biden on the pumps.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
