Currently, gas prices throughout the country are reaching record highs. For months, the establishment left has been blaming soaring prices on “greedy capitalism” and for months, their constituency has been lapping it up. In reality, gas prices are high because of federal government intervention in the market, sanctions which have skewed competition, and runaway inflation thanks to irresponsible monetary policy by the fed which has printed trillions over the last two years.
As blowhards in DC mull price controls and point fingers, the effects of soaring prices are hitting main street America hard. Unfortunately, the “solution” proposed by the economically illiterate political class will only make matters worse. As Congress pushes legislation to add to inflation, the results of their already-failed policies are trickling down.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) has reported that Michigan had seen one of the highest average weekly gas-price surges in the country. Prices were previously climbing weekly but are now increasing on a daily basis. On Tuesday, a gallon of regular fuel cost $5.21, up from $5.17 the day before. A week ago, it was $4.70 a gallon. Last year, gas prices were $3.01 a gallon, marking a ridiculous 73% increase.
Gas prices were already putting a strain on US drivers, who have increasingly been left stuck on motorways with empty tanks as they try to “test the limits of their fuel gauges,” according to the AAA. But now the issue is beginning to severely affect police departments and other agencies.
According to Michigan County Administrator Nicole Frost, who spoke with the Detroit Free Press, the local sheriff’s office had already spent 96% of its fuel budget with three-and-a-half months still to go until the end of the fiscal year.
In one such instance, police departments in several Michigan counties have begun to implement a rather laughable policy in regards to policing. Several police departments in the state have informed officers to handle “whatever calls are acceptable” — by phone. Seriously.
As the Detroit Free Press reports, the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office announced this week that it is “feeling the pain at the pump,” and has “exhausted what funds were budgeted” for gasoline with “several months to go before the budget reset.”
Michigan’s Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main told the outlet that he has instructed his deputies to manage whatever calls they can over the phone. These include “non-in-progress calls, non-life-threatening calls, and calls that do not require evidence collection or documentation.”
He added that officers will “continue to provide patrols to all areas of the county” and will still respond to “calls that need to be managed in person.”
“Any call that is in progress with active suspects will involve a response by the deputies,” Main said. “I want to assure the community that safety is our primary goal, and we will continue to respond to those types of calls.”
Other government agencies in the state are feeling the same pain. As the Free Press reports:
Local governments are experiencing the same pain as commuters and trying to make adjustments, Dan Gilmartin, the CEO Michigan Municipal League, said Wednesday. He added that the problem is likely to get even worse.
“They’re scrambling,” Gilmartin said of Michigan’s local governments.
Moreover, he predicted, even more pain is likely as the cost of gas affects the cost of road construction and infrastructure upgrades. Bids out on long-overdue projects that have recently received federal funding are coming back a lot higher than initially expected.
“It’s affecting them in the short term,” Gilmartin said of the high cost of gas on local governments. “But in the longer term it is going to affect them even more. And it could be significant in some places, especially with all the infrastructure work being done.”
Unfortunately, the problem does not appear to have an end in sight and analysts are predicting $6 per gallon prices nationally — or more — by the end of the summer.
The next time you dial 911 and you’re told to press one to be transferred to a police officer who will not come to your house, remember the US government continues to print more money and send tens of billions of your tax dollars to Ukraine to fund a proxy war with Russia.
