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Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) asked President Biden to oppose a suspension of the federal gas tax in a letter Thursday, warning of severe unintended consequences for infrastructure.

Biden is coming under pressure from other Democrats to embrace a gas tax holiday, and The Hill reported this week that the idea is gaining steam.

But Blumenauer cited a market analysis by the Transportation Investment Advocacy Center indicating that over the past decade, only about 18 percent of state gas tax cuts have been passed down to consumers, with the bulk of the changes in revenue returning to oil and gas companies themselves.

While there is undoubtedly a need to provide American consumers relief from spiking costs, there is no guarantee a gas tax suspension would reduce prices at the pump or stem the broader inflation affecting the global economy, and it may only increase oil companies bottom lines, Blumenauer wrote.

In the meantime, he argued, a suspension of the federal tax would create a massive hole in the infrastructure and transportation budget, in particular the Highway Trust Fund, which has already operated under a deficit for years. Suspending the federal gas tax through the end of the fiscal year would cost the fund a further $20 billion, according to budget modeling from the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School of Business.

Moreover, Blumenauer wrote, the provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure bill Biden signed into law at the end of 2021 assume federal gas tax revenues remain the same.

Delaying, or cancelling outright, the projects this legislation makes possible will waste a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild and renew America, and leave future generations holding the bag for long overdue repairs and improvements, Blumenauer wrote.

Biden cannot unilaterally declare a holiday, which would require congressional approval, but could push lawmakers on the subject.

A number of states have responded to record gas prices with moratoriums on state gas taxes, including Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland and New York. Similar proposals have been discussed but not yet implemented in Alaska, Illinois, Minnesota and Virginia. Several Democratic governors have asked Biden to consider a federal gas tax holiday, and the presidents economic team hasreportedlyheld talks on the matter over the past week.

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Democrat to Biden: Dont suspend gas tax - The Hill

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) called on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign on Thursday after news that his wife, Virginia Ginni Thomas, emailed with conservative lawyer John Eastman, who was central in former President Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

In a statement on Thursday, Pascrell said Thomas cannot possibly be seen as a neutral actor, labeling him a corrupt jurist.

Over the last few years, we have become numb to bad acts by powerful actors, but Clarence and Ginni Thomas have participated in one of the worst breaches of trust ever seen in our court system, Pascrell said.

Clarence Thomas cannot possibly be seen as a neutral actor but instead as a corrupt jurist who has poisoned the High Court. Clarence Thomas should have dignity and final respect for our democracy and resign, he added.

The call came less than a day after The Washington Post reported that the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has obtained email communication between Ginni Thomas and Eastman. The sources, however, would not provide details of the correspondence.

That revelation added to the heaps of reporting that details Thomass connections to the efforts to overturn the 2020 results.

In March, news broke that Thomas texted with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the aftermath of the presidential election regarding efforts to reverse the vote.

Earlier this month, the Post reported that she urged 29 GOP state lawmakers in Arizona to choose new presidential electors in an effort to reverse President Bidens win there.

The Jan. 6 committee has asked Thomas to speak with the panel; Thomas said Thursday I look forward to talking to them, adding, I cant wait to clear up misconceptions.

Pascrell, in his statement, referenced reports of Thomas conspiring with Trump and his allies while also noting that Clarence Thomas had heard 2020 election-related cases before the Supreme Court.

The high court has handed down at least 10 rulings regarding the 2020 election. Among the most notable was a January decision allowing the Jan. 6 panel to obtain White House records from the Trump administration.

Thomas was the only justice to dissent the decision.

Last night, we read yet more reports that the wife of the longest-serving justice on the Supreme Court was actively conspiring with Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the election and overthrow American democracy, Pascrell wrote.

And while she was doing all this, her husband, Justice Thomas, was hearing litigation related to the 2020 election at the High Court, he added.

In a tweet, the congressman said, Ginni Thomas was complicit in the insurrection attempt at the Capitol on 1/6 as Justice Thomas was considering litigation around the 2020 election, adding, Thomas has proven himself a corrupt actor who has breached public trust.

For the good of the court and nation, he must resign NOW, he said.

Pascrell is not the first lawmaker to call for Thomass resignation. In March, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) urged the justice to step down. Others have called on him to recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6 attack.

Some of Thomass colleagues, however, are offering support. Justice Sonia Sotomayor this week said her conservative colleague is a man who cares deeply about the court as an institution.

We share a common understanding about people and kindness towards them, she added.

The Hill has reached out to the Supreme Court for comment.

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House Democrat calls for Clarence Thomas to resign following report of wifes email with Eastman - The Hill

An ambulance with a message against Gov. Greg Abbotts Democratic challenger, Beto ORourke, is parked outside a reception hosted by the governor during the kickoff of the GOP convention in Houston.

Texas Republicans kicked off their biennial convention Thursday, taking over Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center to discuss the state party's platform, as well as elect its leaders.

Organizers say about 10,000 delegates, alternates and guests are in attendance this year a time when Republicans have solidified their dominance in Texas.

"Remember, the Republican Party of Texas is a grassroots party," Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, told the crowd. "It doesn't belong to me, the governor, or senators or congressmen, or any elected official. This is your party."

Texas GOP committees have been meeting since Monday to discuss intraparty business. But the big speeches started Thursday.

The kick-off day included appearances from local Republican leaders, like state Senator and Republican nominee for land commissioner Dawn Buckingham, as well as national ones, like Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears.

Many of the speeches focused on beating the Democrats in November, and included calls for less negotiation and collaboration with them.

"We need to take the fight directly to the left and go on offense," Rinaldi said, adding that he wanted Republicans to stop appointing Democrats to chair committees in the Texas House of Representatives.

During last years session, House Speaker Dade Phelan named 14 Democrats chairs of standing committees.

Later this week, Sen. John Cornyn, who led the congressional gun reform deal, will be speaking. Many Republicans at the convention told The Texas Newsroom they saw Cornyn as a RINO a Republican in name only for working with Democrats.

"I think he needs to be voted out," said Mary Jo Bloomquist, a lifelong Republican from Granbury who is attending the convention as a guest. "He's been in office way too long, and he hasn't done a lot of good things for Texas."

James Byers, a resident of Montgomery County, said Cornyn's approach with Democrats doesn't work anymore for Republicans.

"John Cornyn really emphasizes on being civil, working with people, not being hateful towards anybody that's why he's a really good Republican," Byers said. "But I'm just saying the mood in Texas is more of We really need a fighter.'"

The issue of gun violence was not at the center of this year's convention, despite last month's mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde where an 18-year-old gunman killed 21 people.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who is not speaking on the main stage this year, hosted a reception off-site Thursday night.

"We will not tolerate what happened in Uvalde," Abbott said in his speech, who briefly talked about making schools safer before moving on to other topics. Abbott slammed President Biden and Democrat Beto O'Rourke, and talked about securing the border and funding the police.

Meanwhile, election fraud has been a big topic during this year's convention, with attendees being able to watch multiple showings of the movie 2000 Mules, a film that falsely claims to have exposed fraud in the 2020 election.

Peter Schroer, a convention delegate from the Dallas area, said the party should focus on attacking Biden's legacy, instead of an election that happened two years ago.

"I want to put that in the rearview mirror ... we need to come out and speak for the best of our country," Schroer said. "Let's run people and win this for our party."

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Texas GOP conventions main theme: Going on offense against Democrats - Houston Public Media

MSNBC analyst and former Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher claims there is only one way to get apathetic Black voters to the polls in the upcoming midterm elections.

Scare the hell out of them, he said.

A strategist in national progressive politics, Belcher is the president of the polling firm Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies and a former political contributor to CNN. He served as a pollster for the Democratic National Committee under Chairman Howard Dean and was the first Black person to lead in that role for either national party. He also served on the polling team for both Barack Obama presidential campaigns.

African Americans and women need to be motivated to vote, even if it means scaring them, Belcher said during a June 15 interview on MSNBCs Deadline: White House.

African American men who are showing the lowest motivation to turn out in this midterm, you think things are tough for you right now? Where do you think youre going to stand in a country in America where theres no democracy, where they have absolutely no interest at all in respecting your rights? Belcher said.

Belcher had a warning for women:Campaigns, we have to give them a reason to feel they have skin in the game, that this is important to them, that losing democracy is important to them. And whether or not it be telling women that, you know what, women? You think youre losing your rights now? What do you think is going to happen if we dont have democracy?

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Belcher concluded, Weve got to scare the hell out of them because quite frankly, they should be afraid that were going to lose our democracy.

Why would Democrats have to resort to scare tactics when the Dems have a majority in Congress and the Senate and a Democratic president?

Since the DNC and president are reportedly losing the support of Black voters, Belcher seems to think scare tactics would be the only way to guarantee the Black vote.

Black voters have been expressing frustration with the lack of legislation around issues that concern them, including reparations, police reform, and voting rights. White voters have failed to get behind these issues.

A 2015 report calledPolitical Powerlessnessby Nicholas Stephanopoulos at the University of Chicago Law School found that Black support for Congressional legislation actually decreased its chances of passage, FiveThirtyEight reported. As white support increases from 0 percent to 100 percent, the likelihood of adoption increases from about 10 percent to about 60 percent. As Black support rises from 0 percent to 100 percent though, the odds of enactmentfallfrom roughly 40 percent to roughly 30 percent.

Some political observers say the Dems have taken the Black vote for granted because Black voters have been loyal and are captured. More than 90 percent of the Black votehas gone to the Democratic candidate for president. This could be changing as there has been a growing shift of Black men voting Republican and Black America is becoming more demanding about their vote.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble?

Black voters turned out for President Joe Biden, who carried 87 percent of the Black vote in the 2020 presidential election. His approval rating among Black voters has plummeted in the past year from 78 percent to 57 percent, according to a Jan. 12 Quinnipiac poll.

The problem is the Democrats need Black Americans to vote in order to win. Although Black people comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, they are the dominant Democratic voters in large cities and Southern states like South Carolina, which put Biden on the path to the White House, The Washington Post reported.

Photo: Cornell Belcher speaks at Harvard Kennedy School, Oct. 26, 2015, on the topic of Tribal America Racial Polarization in the American Electorate,screenshot from video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FniHDOuBUHg&t=6s

Excerpt from:
Democrat Pollster Cornell Belcher: You Have To Scare Black Americans To Vote In Midterms, Scare The Hell Out Of Them - Moguldom

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So big news. A Republican has flipped a House seat in the deep blue South Texas. That's scary to Dems who thought the only seat flipping would be in a gender-neutral bathroom.

Is this an indicator of a coming red wave? Maybe. And it's got nothing to do with a tampon shortage. It's absolutely terrible. I don't stand for that kind of humor. But let's ask the folks at "The View," which no one has ever said in the history of the universe, is there a red wave coming?

THE VIEW HOST:The red wave is coming. Republicans are going to win the midterms short of something unforeseen that I cannot predict now.

You know what I love about "The View?" It reminds people every day not to eat lead paint chips. But you got to remember, Joy Behar thought that her going on a sex strike would make men change their minds. And they did to vote Republican.

GREG GUTFELD: WHY IS EVERYTHING SO BAD RIGHT NOW?

Look at Republican Mayra Flores. She won that seat in South Texas, the first win there in 150 years. That's a long time. Thats like two Julie Banderas, or a half a Joe Biden. She flipped an 84% Hispanic district red. And I bet it's because the liberal policies from Washington are tearing our community apart.

MAYRA FLORES CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENT:Liberal policies from Washington are tearing our community apart. As a wife of a Border Patrol agent, I pray for his safety now more than ever. We must secure our borders and keep our families safe.

Well, she's not only smart, but attractive. Who does she remind me of in that regard? Flores seat was previously held by a Democrat who stepped down to become a lobbyist after realizing he'd lose in a red wave. So he took the easy way out, like when I hide behind Tyrus to avoid Kilmeade in the hallway.

And she's now the first congresswoman ever to be born in Mexico. So, I'm sure AOC must find this historic first pretty empowering.

And then you hear that Elon Musk voted for Flores, which prompted Democrat Congressman Jamaal Bowman to accuse Musk of supporting white supremacy. Yeah, that's logic. Vote for a woman of color who's born in Mexico. And that makes you racist. Jamal got any dumber you know, he could be on "The View."

Flores earned an endorsement from Governor Greg Abbott. And guess who's trailing him in the governor's race by 20 frickin points? Yes. Go to your screen. Go to your screen right now and scratch. Scratch. What does that smell like to you, viewers? Loser. We would have accepted Ax body spray. This guy couldn't win a coin toss if he got to call both sides.

Meanwhile, Biden's approval rating with Hispanic and Latino voters sits in the mid-twenties. That's the worst of any ethnic group. Geraldos mustache is more popular. And for good reason. Joe's embracing of hard left policies has abandoned decent people of every pigment in every race. They said he was a uniter, and now people of all races think that captain poo, poo pants sucks and it undermines everything racist Dems have been saying for years about changing demographics. They thought Mexicans would be dupes for their hard left tripe. How bigoted is that?

RACHEL MADDOW: A lot of other states are heading toward increasing diversification, toward demographic changes that mean a less red state future for them.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: I really think because of demographic changes in this country, I think that the Democratic Party is going to win Texas moving forward and the Democratic Party is going to be in power for the next 30, 40 years.

CNN GUEST: The Texans have had on this sort of long-term project of trying to take some red states across the Sunbelt and flip them blue as demographic changes are taking place there.

MSNBC GUEST: And the demographic change that's happening in America right now gives the upper hand to Democrats.

Wow it's almost like they are, dare I say it, white supremacists in their thinking. The assumption that every brown person will fall in line and vote for crap if they were bribed with free stuff. Dems are like saying, you know, sure they're pro-life and religious, but give them free dental and we'll own their asses. But they forgot that Hispanics aren't as progressive as the white liberal assumes. It's why you only hear clueless whites using the phrase Latinx.

PRESIDENT BIDEN:It's awful hard as well to get Latinx vaccinated as well. Why? They're worried that they'll be vaccinated and deported.

All right, Gramps. Fact is you don't have to do much. He really is a godsend.

Fact is, Mexicans are just like anybody else. They don't want to be victims of crime. That's why many left Mexico. They want to afford gas and food and drink water that doesn't double as a laxative.

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But the left wants them to drop 100 grand on an electric car and then eat crickets. Also, unlike the left, they go to church. They believe in God. They're pro-life. They think family is a good thing. They're basically Eisenhower Republicans.

They understand the hierarchy of needs. See the little chart there that in life, stuff like food and family and energy that comes first. And that's a far cry from pronouns, statue toppling and insurrection porn. The least important thing in that chart -- self-actualization. We don't even know what that is.

But the Republican Party gets this that we're all united by common sense, a working knowledge of Home Depot, as well as the pleasures of a fine tequila. But the Dems, thanks to their delusional embrace of wokeism, have it backwards. Here's the left's hierarchy of needs. Call everyone racists, blame everything on America, oppression , never bathe.

Here's Joe's hierarchy of needs. Blame other people for failures, bail out Hunter, watch "Murder, She Wrote," find ice cream, nap. It's actually not bad. No wonder the Dems chase a pointless ****. That's because without structure, work or family, you end up with moronic platitudes. You will own nothing. But so what? You'll have 64 genders to choose from and the government will mail you a crack pipe. That's the Hunter plan.

Hell, the last time a Democrat made something, they became a Republican.

So who is Myra Flores? I'm sure by November, she'll be the new face of white supremacy.

Greg Gutfeld currently serves as host of FOX News Channel's (FNC) "Gutfeld!" (weekdays 11PM/ET) and co-host of "The Five" (weekdays 5PM/ET). He joined the network in 2007 as a contributor. He is the author of several books. His latest is "The Plus: Self-Help for People Who Hate Self-Help." Click here for more information on Greg Gutfeld.

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Greg Gutfeld: Democrats have their values backwards - Fox News