Dem Sen. Murphy on Suspending Gas Tax: Don’t Want to ‘Help the President Continue the War’, ‘Need to Keep the Pressure’ to End War

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) responded to the prospect of suspending the federal gas tax by saying that “I’m not willing to help the president spend billions of dollars of my taxpayers’ money every single day on a war that is empowering Iran and bringing the entire world’s economy to a standstill.” And “I’m not terribly interested in efforts to try to manage the war and help the president continue the war.” He also argued that “we need to keep the pressure on this president to do what the American people want him to do, which is to bring this war to an end.”

Host Kaitlan Collins asked, “One thing the president said today was about the gas tax, that he supports suspending the federal gas tax. That would require an act of Congress, of course, to carry that out. Would you — if that comes up for a vote, how are you going to vote on that?”

Murphy answered, “Well, the quickest way to get gas prices down, Kaitlan, is to end this war. And what the president seems to be preparing for is an endless war. So, he wants to use any other mechanism available to him to try to allow him to keep the United States engaged in Iran forever. That is a disaster. So, no, I’m not willing to help the president spend billions of dollars of my taxpayers’ money every single day on a war that is empowering Iran and bringing the entire world’s economy to a standstill. Let’s end the war. Let’s put all of our energy into ending the war, rather than trying to use tax policy to allow the war to continue indefinitely. That’s insanity.”

He added, “I’m not terribly interested in efforts to try to manage the war and help the president continue the war.”

Murphy further stated that a gas tax suspension wouldn’t get prices to where they were before the war and that gas prices will continue to rise even if there is a suspension of the gas tax, “So we need to keep the pressure on this president to do what the American people want him to do, which is to bring this war to an end. Because as long as this war goes on, it’s not just the price of gas that’s going to go up, it’s groceries, it’s electronics, it’s clothing, everything starts to get pricier as the cost of a barrel of oil continues to go through the roof.”

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