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Report: U.S. Capital Nearly Out of Gas While North Carolina, Virginia Also Endure Steep Outages

LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images

AMY FURR

14 May 20213

2:26

The United State’s capital is nearly dry of gasoline Friday morning while states such as North Carolina and Virginia are also struggling, according to recent data.

According to GasBuddy data posted at 9:33 a.m. ET, D.C. is experiencing an 88 percent outage, with North Carolina at 67 percent, and Virginia at 50 percent.

The Colonial Pipeline’s recent ransomware attack and ensuing concerns about gas prices have contributed to a fuel shortage on the East Coast, Breitbart News reported Tuesday.

“Colonial Pipeline, a critical source of fuel on the East Coast of the United States, shut down its operations on Friday after the cyberattack, prompting concerns that gas prices would rise,” the outlet said.

However, the pipeline’s reopening has not sorted out the gas shortage affecting the Southeast.

“In many states, significantly more gas stations are reportedly out of gas than the day before,” Breitbart News reported Thursday.

Oil and refined products analyst, Patrick De Haan, said Friday “We generally only saw small outage improvement overnight, highlighting the next choke point: too many stations need fuel, not enough capacity at the rack, not enough truck drivers”:

In a subsequent post, De Haan added most of the states and areas experiencing outages have seen panic buying, “which is likely a contributing factor to the slow-ish recovery thus far. It will take a few weeks”:

On Thursday, President Joe Biden refused to confirm reports the Colonial Pipeline Co. paid almost $5 million to free their computer infrastructure from the ransomware attack.

When reporters asked if he was briefed about the company paying the ransom, Biden said, “I have no comment on that,” according to Breitbart News.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki also declined to comment when asked if the administration was aware the company reportedly paid the ransom.

“I’m just not going to have any more on that,” she stated during the White House press briefing.

“It continues to be the position of the federal government, the FBI, that it is not in the interests of the private sector for companies to pay the ransom because it incentivizes these actions,” Psaki added.

Consumer Sentiment Unexpectedly Crashes on Rising Inflation Fears, Weakening Income Expectations

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(Photo by T.J. Kirkpatrick-Pool/Getty Images)

JOHN CARNEY

14 May 202131

2:43

A jump in consumer expectations for higher inflation dragged down consumer sentiment in the first weeks of May.

The University of Michigan’s survey of consumer sentiment dropped 6.2 percent from the final April read just a few weeks earlier to a score of 82.8. Economists had forecast a gain to 90.3 from 88.3.

“Consumer confidence in early May tumbled due to higher inflation–the highest expected year-ahead inflation rate as well as the highest long-term inflation rate in the past decade,” said Richard Curtin, the survey’s chief economist.

The current conditions component of the index tumbled 6.6 percent to 90.8, also missing expectations. The expectations component fell 6.2 percent to 77.6 percent.

The inflation-driven decline in consumer sentiment follows data this week that showed both the Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index rising much higher than economists expected. It is likely to fuel the idea that analysts at the Federal Reserve and on Wall Street have underestimated the inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy.

Rising inflation expectation also meant that real income expectations were the weakest in five years, Curtin said.

In fact, inflation expectations for many items are at the worst level since the early Volcker era, when the Fed pushed interest rates sky-high to contain inflation, triggering a recession. That outraged the public and put the central bank at odds with the Reagan administration, which was trying to spur faster growth after the malaise of the Carter administration.

“The average of net price mentions for buying conditions for homes, vehicles, and household durables were more negative than any time since the end of the last inflationary era in 1980,” Curtin said.

Fed officials say they believe the current bout of inflation will be transitory but the University of Michigan survey suggests consumers disagree. Expectations for long-term and short-term inflation jumped much higher.

Despite rising prices, consumer demand is likely to remain high because of the enormous excess savings built up during the pandemic and pent-up demand.

“This combination of persistent demand in the face of rising prices creates the potential for an inflationary psychology, fostering buy-in-advance rationales and cost-of-living increases in wages,” Curtin said.

While the bond market still reflects the Fed’s position that interest rates will not go up soon, the survey shows two-thirds expect a rate hike in the year ahead.

Nolte: Elitist Biden Admin Rubs Gas Crisis in Working Class Faces — Let Them Eat Priuses!

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LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty

JOHN NOLTE

14 May 2021484

4:06

Went looking for gas yesterday in my North Carolina town. No luck. My pickup’s three-quarters full, so I should be fine until things (hopefully) return to normal, but the gas containers for my equipment are bone dry and so were the filling stations I drove by.

What’s the Biden administration’s response to this…?

“If you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you, clearly.“

Ah.

Okay.

That was our energy secretary, Madam Lunatic Jennifer Granholm.

Well, here’s my response to her: “Go fuck yourself, lady.”

Driving home from Tennessee on Tuesday was nerve-wracking enough with the gas shortages, can you imagine life always being that way if you drove an electric car? Can you imagine always having to worry about finding a recharging station? Oh, and then when you find one, can you imagine sitting around for four hours while it recharges?

I just paid off my pickup, now you want me to go buy a Prius? How do I pull my travel trailer with a Prius?

Should I not go camping? Is that your next answer? Well, fuck you again, I’m an American, I’ll do what I want.

This is especially galling because I never drive anywhere. I work out of the home and stick within a couple of miles of home to do most of my business. We own one vehicle, my 2018 truck, and it has 9200 miles on it. That’s how much I’ve “polluted” over the last 3.5 years, but I’m still supposed to buy a Prius because this feckless administration and its useless and corrupt Deep State are more concerned with the pronouns I’m using than protecting my way of life from the terrorists who shut down a vital pipeline that delivers the most important natural resource not called “air” or “water.”

“If you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you, clearly.“ Oh, so this is our fault? This is the people’s fault for buying vehicles that might not be electric but are still EPA and government-approved? This is our fault for buying the vehicles you told us it was okay to buy?

You see, this is the whole problem with our elite, left-wing establishment… I’m talking about the government, media, academia, Hollywood, Big Tech… They hate us. They truly hate us. They hate us because we don’t agree with them, because we make our own choices about how to live our own lives, because we don’t do everything they tell us to do. They hate us so much that when something like this happens, when we’re sitting in gas lines or stressing about running out of gas a hundred miles from home, they enjoy it. In their sick minds we deserve to be punished, to be unemployed, to lose precious hours off our pay, to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, to be gouged by price increases caused by their own iincompetence.

Honestly, how practical is an electric car for guys like myself who have to haul their own trash to the landfill?

The left’s answer to that will be, You need to live in the cities with us!

Oh, yeah, I want to move to your cities, where all the pollution, gun violence, hate crimes, riots, racism, COVID, and looting is…

Even if I wanted an electric car — and I do not — how practical is one for a plumber or house painter or electrician or appliance repairman or any of the guys who spend all day driving around from crisis to crisis keeping our world turning. It’s not, and we all know it. But what’s the Biden administration’s response to them? You hicktard, you shoulda’ bought a Prius!

No empathy, no taking responsibility, just HA HA, Redneck, that’ll teach you!

They don’t even pretend to care.

The Biden administration hates us… They hate us because we just want to be left alone… They hate us because we’re mostly content and happy when they are not… They hate us because we know they’re all full of shit…

It’s okay to hate them back.

Annual Rich States, Poor States Report: Winners, Losers Fall Along Red State/Blue State Divide

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AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

PENNY STARR

13 May 2021149

5:31

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released on Wednesday its 14th annual Rich States, Poor States report, which reveals once again states with the lowest taxes, fewer regulations, and more worker freedom offer a better standard of living for those who reside there.

The three authors of the study — Jonathan Williams, Arthur B. Laffer, and Stephen Moore — noted on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday that the winners and losers fall along the blue state/red state divide.

The introduction for the 14th edition summarizes the findings:

The new edition finds that even through the pandemic, states with policies such as low or no income taxes and worker freedom are more economically competitive and better positioned for wage growth, job creation and domestic in-migration compared to states with higher taxes and government spending. The new rankings also reveal that, as proven by new 2020 Census data, Americans “vote with their feet” by moving from high-tax to low-tax states.

Williams, ALEC chief economist, said in the introduction to the repor:

Utah, at the top of the rankings for the 14th year in a row, solidified its well-deserved first place spot this year by prioritizing sound economic policy. Utah has an incredibly strong track record of pro-taxpayer reforms in recent years, including the adoption of a flat personal income tax rate, pension reform for its previously endangered system, and the state’s innovative approach to property tax reform. The success of Utah’s ‘truth in taxation’ policy for local property taxes, has been noticed by other states.

Truth in taxation has already passed nearly unanimously in Kansas this session, and is being considered in Nebraska. It is a great development to see states follow the lead of competitive state policy, which brings with it job creation and shared economic success for all.

The report spells out how it rated states:

The Economic Outlook Ranking is a forecast based on a state’s current standing in 15 state policy vari- ables. Each of these factors is influenced directly by state lawmakers through the legislative process. Generally speaking, states that spend less — especially on income transfer programs — and states that tax less — particularly on productive activities such as working or investing — experience higher growth rates than states that tax and spend more.

The Economic Performance Ranking is a backward-looking measure based on a state’s performance on three important variables: State Gross Domestic Product, Absolute Domestic Migration and Non-Farm Payroll Employment — all of which are highly influenced by state policy. This ranking details states’ individual performances over the past 10 years based on this economic data.

The Top 10 most prosperous states are, in order: Utah, Florida, Oklahoma, Wyoming, North Carolina, Indiana, Nevada, North Dakota, Texas, and South Dakota.

Only two of those states —Nevada and North Carolina — have Democrat governors.

Laffer discussed the bottom 10 states on the call:

“Look at those guys, New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Illinois, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Maine, Hawaii Rhode Island, Maryland, Connecticut,” Laffer said. “Look at what their policies are, and flip the ledger over and do the exact opposite.” 

“You’ll have a great state,” Laffer said.

Of the bottom 10 states only two — Vermont and Maryland — have Republican governors.

Moore said competition between states rather than federal control is the key to economic success:

Unfortunately the Biden administration has wanted to do is reduce a lot of those competitive factors in between states. They want to federalize a lot of these activities, whether it’s on healthcare or education or a blue state bailout, or bringing back the state and local tax deduction, which I think is a terrible idea.

“I think New York and California should have the right to raise taxes on their citizens if they want to, but they shouldn’t be able to export those taxes to people in other states. So we need to preserve the federalism system.”

“It works fantastically and it rewards states for doing the right things and, frankly, it punishes states for doing a lot of things,” Moore said

The report drills down on economic policies in all 50 states, including:

• Top Marginal Personal Income Tax Rate

• Top Marginal Corporate Income Tax Rate

• Personal Income Tax Progressivity (change in tax liability per $1,000 of income)

• Property Tax Burden

(per $1,000 of personal income)

• Sales Tax Burden

(per $1,000 of personal income)

Estate/Inheritance Tax Levied?

• Public Employees Per 10,000

of Population (full-time equivalent)

• State Minimum Wage (federal floor is $7.25)

• Right-to-Work State?

(option to join or support a union)

Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com