Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Linda Booker, 79, fills up her Kia Soul $10 at a time whenever the low gasoline light comes on. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all I can afford,\u201d she said at a Northeast Philadelphia<\/a> gas station, one hand on the pump and the other balancing herself on her cane decorated with a red-polka-dotted pink tape.<\/p>\n The retiree does not drive much. She goes to the grocery store, sometimes to the thrift store and flea markets, and then back to the gas station. <\/p>\n Her $10 does not go as far these days. The cost at Sunoco Tuesday was $4.19 per gallon.<\/p>\n She sat down in her car and watched as her Kia\u2019s screen updated after she filled up: 126 miles left in the tank. Before the war in Iran she would get closer to 170 after filling up, she said. <\/p>\n Gas prices have become a dominant issue for voters seven months ahead of the midterms as a result of President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s war with Iran. Democrats are seizing on the sky-high prices at the pump to bolster their case for regaining control<\/a> of Congress in November as Trump\u2019s allies dominate both chambers in Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president needs to straighten this out,\u201d Booker said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a total mess, and I don\u2019t know how they let him get away with all this. I just don\u2019t understand Congress and Senate. I really don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats<\/a> do not have much power in Washington at the moment, but U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Northeast Philadelphia Democrat, wants to limit the price of gas for people like Booker.<\/p>\n Just down the road from Booker at another Northeast Philadelphia gas station, Boyle announced a new bill that would cap the federal tax on gas when the national average goes above $4 a gallon.<\/p>\n \u201cSix weeks ago, the average of the Philadelphia area per gallon of gas was the same as it was nationally, under $3 a gallon,\u201d Boyle said, standing in a black suit under the hot sun. \u201cThen this president decided to launch an entirely unnecessary and reckless war in Iran.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe last time gas prices jumped by more than $1 a gallon in just one month was the 1960s, well before I was born,\u201d added Boyle, who is 49.<\/p>\n His bill would remove all \u2014 or part \u2014 of the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax anytime the national gas average goes over $4 per gallon. The caveat is that the lowest it would bring gas is $3.99 per gallon, so the discount would be more significant the higher the national gas average is.<\/p>\n Right behind him, a Mobil gas station sign read $4.11 per gallon for regular. A couple of nearby stations sold regular for as low as $4.09 per gallon. Gas Star cost $4.15. A nearby Shell had a price tag of $4.19 per gallon.<\/p>\n When asked<\/a> by Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday whether he believes the price of oil and gas will go down by the midterms, Trump said the prices \u201ccould be, or the same, or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think this won\u2019t be that much longer,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019re wiped out.\u201d<\/p>\n Boyle said that the federal gas tax generates about $30 billion a year for the Federal Highway Fund and that Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided subsidies in that amount for gas and oil companies. So to pay for the tax break at the pump, he wants to rescind the corporate subsidies and direct that money to the highway fund instead.<\/p>\n Boyle\u2019s bill is unlikely to pass given the Republican majority in Congress and its reliance on taking away subsidies included in Trump\u2019s signature bill. But Boyle said he is hopeful some Republicans<\/a> would be interested given the tough political landscape for them ahead of this year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the oil and gas companies that they tend to serve would be entirely enthusiastic, but here is a time, especially when they\u2019re facing what looks like a difficult reelection, that they could deliver a real tax [break] to working Americans,\u201d Boyle said.<\/p>\n Boyle said his bill is more \u201cresponsible\u201d and has a better chance of passing than an existing proposal to suspend the federal gas tax through October, both because it would be paid for and because he is not confident gas prices will be better in the fall. <\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot wait for this war to end until we deliver relief to the American people,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n