An Ohio U.S. congressman and U.S. Senate candidate joined many of his Democrat counterparts in blaming Russia and its President Vladimir Putin for skyrocketing gas prices.
“Today I’ll vote to ban U.S. dollars from funding Putin’s war machine. Now we must do everything in our power to shield working people from Putin’s price hike at the pump by fully restoring America’s energy independence and passing a working-class tax cut,” Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) said Wednesday on Twitter.
Today I’ll vote to ban U.S. dollars from funding Putin’s war machine.
Now we must do everything in our power to shield working people from Putin’s price hike at the pump by fully restoring America’s energy independence and passing a working-class tax cut.
— Congressman Tim Ryan (@RepTimRyan) March 9, 2022
The narrative is an ongoing effort by the political Left to shift blame for rising gas prices from their party to foreign adversaries.
While gas prices have spiked during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, they have been steadily rising since President Joe Biden took office in January of 2021.
In March of that year, gas prices nationwide averaged $2.85 per gallon. In the beginning of February of 2022 – before Russia’s attacks on Ukraine – gas prices had risen to $3.58 per gallon. As of Wednesday, gas prices averaged $4.19 per gallon.
Well before the conflict in Eastern Europe began, Democrats in the U.S. Senate filed a bill to eliminate the gas tax through the end of this election year.
There is no immediate end in sight for the rising prices at the pump, and Biden has vowed to stop importing oil from Russia as a form of economic punishment against Putin, despite the fact that it will cost Americans more money to fill their tanks.
The United States imported 3.5 percent of its oil from Russia in 2021.
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price for a gallon of gas in Ohio was $4.07 on Wednesday. That is short of the state’s record high of $4.15 per gallon by only eight cents. A year ago, the average price per gallon in the state was $2.69.
Ryan’s office could not be reached for comment, but several Democrats have attempted to blame Putin for rising prices.
Biden himself is chief among them, conceding that “they’re going to go up.”
“Can’t do much right now. Russia is responsible,” he said.
Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Hakeem Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08) said “the notion that [Republicans] want to now come here and lecture us when Vladimir Putin is the one responsible if gas prices increase significantly here in America — Vladimir Putin — and they shouldn’t provide any aid and comfort to him.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tim Ryan” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.
