No matter what side you sit on in the war with Iran, the skyrocketing gas prices, which have hit $6 in some parts of the country, are affecting everyone. They are not merely an energy crisis but an economic inequality question facing families across the nation, including Michigan.
If the cost of fuel continues to rise astronomically, it could interrupt the summer vacations of many families, especially those who love to take long road trips because it is more convenient and reasonable than any airfare.
Those on fixed incomes and communities that are struggling to get by, as well as families taking their children to school, are feeling the pain the most. That includes the single mother in Detroit or the Upper Peninsula who has to balance rent, utilities and childcare because the spike in gas prices is exposing them to more financial hardship.
Republican candidates running for office in the midterm cannot escape the fact that such economic instability is being presided over by President Donald Trump, the cornerstone of whose 2024 campaign was about bringing down the inflation that took place under former President Joe Biden.
Instead of concretely addressing the economic pressure that many are facing from an unstable oil market, and as a result of the war, Trump seems more focused on his new White House ballroom than anything else.
Add ongoing inflation to this economic conundrum and the outrage grows even louder. Just last week, as I was pumping gas at Costco, another customer looked at me and shook his head in anger after placing the gas nozzle back because of how much he paid to fill his car. I nodded back to him. These times we are living in are forcing many to adjust their discretionary spending or postpone important activities, because some are living from paycheck to paycheck.
The economic shock that people are feeling from the pump doesn’t seem to worry some GOP candidates. Take, for example, Mike Rogers, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, who reportedly said, “We’re gonna be fine, we got plenty of oil” during an event at Oakland University in March.
Rogers and his ilk cannot offer empty rhetoric on the fuel crisis, which is exposing the broader affordability issue in the nation. Instead of partisan performance that is often the standard talking point on cable television and at town hall meetings, there needs to be a serious national conversation about how things are not getting better economically.
Campaign slogans won’t solve the problem. Neither will ideological warfare. This is a state of financial emergency for families who are at the bottom of the economic index. Millions of people are living from paycheck to paycheck. The cost of gas has revealed just how fragile the economic lives of many are.
Ordinary people who are standing at gas stations and watching their paychecks disappear as soon as they fill their tank need solutions.
What connects the poor and working class in both urban and rural Michigan is the gas prices. For some, driving is not optional; it is a means of survival. If fuel cost is draining household budgets in an already battered inflationary economy, and GOP candidates are not putting up tangible solutions or speaking out about it because they are afraid of Trump, they have failed.
People should not pay for failed leadership in November.
X (formerly Twitter): @BankoleDetNews
bankole@bankolethompson.com
Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Empty rhetoric isn’t enough to address rising gas prices | Opinion
Reporting by Bankole Thompson, The Detroit News / The Holland Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
