To the Editor,
Re: Letter: Biden’s federal gas tax suspension follies
I agree with the author that the gas tax holiday would be throwing a miniscule number of crumbs at the American consumer. I also agree with the author about the serious problem of our ballooning federal deficit.
However, it appears to me the author is against any proposal to provide any help to the middle or working class. The author was against relief for the MTA. Would the author have preferred thousands of transit employees be laid off, jeopardizing an already shaky COVID recovery? The author was in favor of raising the subway fare. Would the author prefer tens of thousands of household budgets be strained any further? Mr. Penner worked for the federal government for 31 years. I doubt he’s affluent, but doubt he’s hurting financially, either. I don’t begrudge the author any financial comfort he has attained. I do begrudge him — and mightily — for not understanding that not everyone is as well off as he is.
As for Mr. Penner’s statement about our country having been energy independent, that is not true. I clearly remember the 1973 oil embargo, waiting in line three and a half hours at the gas station at Boston Road and Adee Avenue in my father’s 1971 Plymouth Valiant. That should have been a wakeup call that alternate energy sources needed to be developed. President Biden’s decision to stop importing oil from Russia would not have been such a blow if we were truly energy independent.
