Monday's letters: Gas tax holiday pointless, Van Wezel a work of art, inflation planned

Gas tax suspension won't help

President Joe Biden has proposed a three-month suspension of the 18-cent federal gas tax.

Let’s do the math. The cost of 12 gallons of gas at $5.00 a gallon is $60. The gas tax on 12 gallons is $2.16.

The cost of 12 gallons with no gas tax is $57.84, for a savings of 3.6%.

The cost of a gallon of gas in January 2021 was $2.28.  Twelve gallons at $2.28 costs $27.36.

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The difference in cost for 12 gallons from January 2021 to June 2022, including the proposed waiver of gas tax, is $30.48.

Let’s be real. How will saving $2.16 per fill-up make any sense as a policy initiative when you are still paying more than double the price per fill as just 18 months ago?

How about some realistic initiatives from the White House?

P.S. How can Biden expect the oil companies to invest their money in increasing refining capacity when he is laser focused on rapidly reducing the need for gasoline? If he is serious, maybe he should consider some government subsidy as an incentive.

Jonathan Samuels, Sarasota 

Don’t wipe out beauty, history of Van Wezel

I agree with Anthony Van Wezel Stone and Catherine V.W. Stone, whose grandfather was Lewis Van Wezel. The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall is a work of art and should be preserved.

It was designed by William Wesley Peters, an architect trained by Frank Lloyd Wright, and endorsed by Wright’s widow. Peters was head of Taliesin Associated Architects.

I visited Taliesin, Wright’s home in Spring Green, Wisconsin. My husband’s cousin owned a house designed by Wright in Madison, Wisconsin. Wright was an architect of distinction.

The Van Wezel is a beautiful, unique building and belongs in the National Register of Historic Places.

Roslyn W. Gorchow, Sarasota

High prices part of president's plan

Let’s recap: Amid post-pandemic consumer and commercial demand for goods and services, President Joe Biden, on his first day in office, began his “fundamental transformation” of America.

He seeks to convert us from fossil fuel energy, which we have enjoyed in reliable, plentiful supply at stable cost from private, competing oil companies to solar panels and windmills involuntarily subsidized by taxpayers, which would put access, quantity and pricing under government control via the electric grid.

First, he restricted fossil fuel production, lessening the shipping capability to meet increasing demand for goods.  This necessarily drove the price of fuel and goods higher. Then he unleashed trillions in government spending, cheapening our dollars, which increases prices.

“Putin’s price hikes,” my eye.  Russia didn’t invade Ukraine until Feb. 24, 2022, more than a year after Biden took office. By then, our refineries were already closing down, oil had doubled from $50 per barrel to $100, gas at the pump had doubled from $2 per gallon to $4 and inflation had more than quadrupled from under 2% to 8%.

No one is this incompetent.  Biden’s high prices are designed to force us into government-controlled “renewable” energy, no matter what it costs us.

John A. Lanzetta, Sarasota

Biden not responsible for world’s ills

When I read the letter from a writer who could not believe that President Joe Biden could possibly have a 39% approval rating, that none of these 39 percenters must have tried to buy gas, groceries, heating fuel, etc., I almost had to laugh (“39% approval of Biden hard to believe,” June 22).

How could anyone believe that Biden is solely responsible for worldwide scarcities and high prices? The writer might just as well have accused him of causing global warming.

Yes, times are tough right now, but blaming Biden is ludicrous. Perhaps this writer should look at some of the good things that Biden has accomplished, instead of trying to blame him for all the world’s ills.

Rachel McClure, Sarasota

Suggest solution to worldwide inflation

It is absolutely mind-boggling that anyone in this country could blame the Biden administration for high prices (“39% approval of Biden hard to believe,” June 22).

Inflation is worldwide. The price of fuel is higher in Europe than it is in this country. The price of food is high throughout the world and has much more to do with international policies than it does with the president's.

If the letter writer is so sure that inflation is a U.S. problem, he might put forth his own thoughts (since he apparently holds the answers) and stop putting the blame for worldwide inflation on this country’s administration.

Joyce Fuller, Sarasota

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Gas tax pause won't make a dent, Van Wezel a work of art