Letter to the editor: Vaccines and gas prices
Fact: There were 424,401 covid-19 deaths under President Trump, and from Jan. 20, 2021, to the time of this writing, under President Biden, 417,401 covid-19 deaths. Of those deaths under Biden, 99% were unvaccinated. Their deaths are not Biden’s fault.
In Texas, 99.5% of people who died from covid from February through July 14 were unvaccinated. In southern Missouri, almost every covid-19 patient in Springfield’s hospitals were unvaccinated.
Biden has pleaded with people to get vaccinated. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
Fact: No president, Democrat or Republican, can do much of anything to affect the price of oil and gasoline. The over- riding factor that determines the price of oil from day to day is the market principle of supply and demand. The covid-19 pandemic slashed global demand. The world has reopened, and demand for energy is up; the problem is, supply can’t keep up. Crude oil prices, in response, have skyrocketed.
Also don’t forget about the gas tax. In 2013, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and his Republican administration passed Act 89 to increase the gas tax for road and bridge repairs. Every gallon of gas in Pennsylvania includes 77 cents of tax. Nearly 59 cents is state tax, and 18 cents is federal tax.
What’s funny is, people will complain about the price of gas, but have no problem paying $4 or $5 for a 12- or 16-ounce cup of coffee.
Dale Vukovich Sr.
Greensburg.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.