WASHINGTON, D.C.
This week the White House is set to unveil its new plan to help ease the skyrocketing cost of gasoline prices which hit a record nationwide average of $2.63 per gallon last week and seem poised to go even higher. The major point of the plan will be to redefine the value of a gallon to equal two quarts, rather than four. Administration finance experts suggest that this move could serve to lower the price of a gallon of gas by as much as 40%.
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In this morning's press briefing, Scott McClellan argued that the benefits of the move will be far-reaching. "People can also expect the price of a gallon of milk to drop significantly; the capacity of everyone's fuel tank will immediately double. Plus, we can pretty much eliminate the use of that stupid 'half-gallon' measurement. The president is again demonstrating that he is working on solutions to help ease the financial burdens on working families."
Democrats suggest that the move is nothing more than cosmetic and will do nothing to effectively lower the overall price consumers will pay for gasoline since the amount of gasoline they will have to buy will increase by a factor of two. Democrats further argue that this is simply an attempt by the Bush Administration to funnel more money to Halliburton since the White House also calls for retroactive application of the change to no-bid government contracts and this would result in Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root having exceeded its fuel supply quotas in the context of the Iraq War by 44% over the past year. Estimates of the cost to the government of compensating KBR for its excess fuel supply run between $5-$6 billion.
House majority leader Tom DeLay spoke out in favor of the administration's plan, stating that "Once again, President Bush shows an ability to think outside the box and propose plans that will help America move forward." Senate majority leader Bill Frist's office issued a press release noting the full support of Republicans in the Senate for the Bush plan. Neither House minority leader Nancy Pelosi nor Senate minority leader Harry Reid were available for comment on the plan.
An anonymous senior administration official explained that the idea came to the president after being told of a poll indicating that 38% of high school students already believed that a gallon was equal to two quarts, while only 52% knew the correct value. President Bush reportedly reacted to the poll results by saying "If more than half of 'em don't know what a gallon equals, it shouldn't be a problem for us to change it." Bush plans to implement the move by Executive Order. Another administration official who asked not to be identified indicated that when it was pointed out to President Bush that Congress has the Constitutional power to establish weights and measures, Bush responded by saying, "That's what they said about war power, too."
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