Because they really don’t have much economic acumen and they hate fossil fuels as a matter of principle, left-wing Democrats in Congress are proposing a ‘plan’ to help lower gas prices that would actually cause them to climb higher — and remain high long after the current spike due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Rep. Ro Khanna and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse are pushing a bill they say will help bring relief from high gas prices to Americans – as energy industry critics argue it would do the exact opposite,” Fox Business reported Monday evening.

The ‘big plan’ is the same ‘big plan’ Democrats have proposed in the past: Punish the oil companies because they dare to make profits on the commodity they sell. In addition, the legislation borrows provisions of the most recent trillion-dollar-plus ‘COVID relief’ bills by paying stipends to consumers (which, no doubt, would lead many of them to quit jobs and start staying home again — causing a new labor shortage). It also throws in a heavy dose of class warfare because everything Democrats do involves dividing Americans by race, ethnicity, and socio-economic class:

The proposal, which comes as Russia’s war on Ukraine delivers a shock to global energy prices, is called the “Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax.” According to Khanna, D-Calif., and Whitehouse, D-R.I., the bill would levy a tax on oil barrels sold by large producers “equal to 50 percent of the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and the pre-pandemic average price per barrel between 2015 and 2019.”

The money from that tax would be sent to consumers as a quarterly rebate, according to a description of the bill, with a cutoff for single people making $75,000 or more and families making $150,000 or more. 

“This is a bill to reduce gas prices and hold Big Oil accountable. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sends gas prices soaring, fossil fuel companies are raking in record profits,” Khanna said. “These companies have made billions and used the profits to enrich their own shareholders while average Americans are hurting at the pump.”

“Accountable?” For what? Oil companies didn’t invade Russia.

Also, oil companies are not the principal controllers of the price of their products. That would oil speculators on Wall Street — the investment class (of which Democrats are a part of). But because Dems hate ‘big oil,’ they gotta demonize big oil.

Fox Business noted that this insane new tax would only affect companies that extract over 300,000 barrels of oil per day, applying to oil extracted both domestically and worldwide, according to a press release from Khanna’s office.

That level exempts “[s]maller companies accounting for roughly 70 percent of the domestic production… so oil giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron cannot simply gouge consumers further without the threat of losing market share,” it said.

Question: How will the bigger companies “gouge” us when they only control around 30 percent of the market? And speaking of ‘markets,’ as in our semi-free-market economy, bigger oil companies cannot (and would not) “price gouge” because they would lose more market share to cheaper-priced oil from the smaller companies.

Again, when it comes to the free market and how free-market economies work, Democrats are dummies.

“We’ve seen this script before, and we cannot allow the fossil fuel industry to once again collect a massive windfall by taking advantage of an international crisis,” Whitehouse said. A press release from Whitehouse and Khanna said the increase in gas prices, “is not justified by increases in the cost of domestic production, but is driven by international markets controlled by fossil fuel cartels.”

These guys are such gaslighting fibbers.

“Policies like a so-called windfall profits tax are misguided and would likely backfire by further driving up energy costs for American families and businesses,” American Exploration and Production Council CEO Anne Bradbury said.

“We believe that the solution to rising energy prices should be clear to our nation’s leaders: support domestic production of oil and natural gas and permit the pipelines and infrastructure needed to safely move energy to customers,” Bradbury added.

“The American people are looking for solutions, not finger pointing,” American Petroleum Institute senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs Frank Macchiarola said. “The price at the pump that Americans are currently paying is a function of increased demand and lagging supply combined with the geopolitical turmoil resulting from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.”

Macchiarola added: “Lawmakers should focus on policies that increase US supply to help mitigate the situation rather than political grandstanding that does nothing but discourage investment at a time when it’s needed the most.”

They’re right: The only way to ensure lower oil and gas prices long term is by emulating former President Donald Trump’s ‘drill in America first’ energy policies. Under him, our country became energy self-sufficient and even a net exporter of energy.