Biden says decision on gas tax holiday may come this week

There is a beach in the state of Delaware. President Joe Biden said Monday that he is considering a federal holiday on the gasoline tax.

Biden told reporters after walking along the beach near his vacation home that he was considering it. I would like to make a decision by the end of the week.

The administration wants to spare the public from higher prices at the pump, which began to climb last year and surged after Russia invaded Ukraine. The average price for a gallon of gas in the US is just under $5.

Biden said members of his team were going to meet with the CEOs of the major oil companies. The vice president said that oil companies are making excessive profits when people are feeling the pinch of high prices at the pump. He wouldn't be meeting the oil executives himself.

Biden wants to know why they aren't refining more oil.

In addition to releasing oil from the U.S. strategic reserve, the Biden administration sent a letter to oil companies last week asking them to increase their refining capacity. The administration is considering a gas tax holiday in order to reduce price pressures. Taxes on fuels help pay for highways.

According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, consumers saved at the pump because of gas tax holidays. The majority of the savings went to the consumer.

In an interview with ABC, the Treasury Secretary said that she was open to a gas tax holiday.

Biden stopped frequently to chat with beachgoers who were spending the Juneteenth federal holiday at the beach while he was on the beach with his daughters and granddaughters.

The consumer price index increased to a nearly 40-year high of 8.6% in May from the same month a year ago, and growing warnings from economists that a recession may be around the corner.

One group of beachgoers were told by Biden that they would get through it.

The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by three-quarters of a point last week and signaled more increases to come.

By the end of next year, the former Treasury Secretary thinks there will be a recession in the United States.

The vice president spoke with the former treasury secretary on Monday.

Biden said there wasn't anything inevitable about a recession.

That's right.

Josh Boak is a writer for the AP.