Senator touts expensive electric cars as the answer to skyrocketing fuel costs.
QUICK FACTS:
- Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow was dragged on social media for saying it “doesn’t matter how high gas prices are” during a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, according to The New York Post.
- Gas prices hit a new record for the 10th consecutive day on Wednesday, the national average price per gallon of gas being $4.96, according to AAA.
- Stabenow said Tuesday that she was able to breeze right past stations on her way to Washington, D.C. due to her electric car.
- “I drove it from Michigan to here this last weekend and went by every single gas station and it didn’t matter how high it was,” she said.
- The Michigan senator’s comments came as gas prices have jumped past $5 per gallon in 13 states, including her home state of Michigan.
- Stabenow’s remarks have been called “incredibly out of touch,” “tone death” and “elitist” by users on social media.
SOCIAL MEDIA BACKLASH:
- One Twitter user joked “Let them buy Teslas!” referring to Marie-Antoinette’s notorious “Let them eat cake!” reply when she was told her starving subjects had no bread to eat.
- “If MI voters & everyday Americans needed further proof @ how out of touch & elitist these electric limousine liberals are, just listen to Democrat Sen. Stabenow brag about not having to pay for gas while millions of Americans suffer in this #BidenGasHike,” GOP political commentator Paris Dennard tweeted.
- “It usually takes a Hollywood actor to sound so disconnected from Americans who are struggling to pay for gas, but now Senator Stabenow is laughing at the price at the pump from the comfort of her electric vehicle,” school superintendent and media contributor Joel Petlin tweeted. “Even if the goal is worthy, the message is incredibly out of touch.”
BACKGROUND:
- On average, the price of an electric car is $56,437, which is about 13,000 higher than the average price of a standard full-size car. That is also and $5,000 higher than the average cost of an entry-level luxury car, according to Kelley Blue Book.
- However, neither of those statistics take into account the likelihood that the depressed economic status of many Americans today has left them more concerned about getting to work to keep their jobs than upgrading their vehicle.
