Idiots

By Ron Beasley

The movement conservatives that control the Republican Party think that a majority of the American people are idiots.  The fact that they have gained control of this country leads me to believe they must be right.  Think Progress brings us a classic example.

GINGRICH: Well, I got a very funny e-mail from a retired military officer in Tampa who pointed out that most tire inflation is done at service stations and you pay for it. And it’s actually a higher profit margin than selling gasoline. So Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas.

Just how ridiculous is this?

This claim is absurd for a number of reasons. First, gas station owners, not Big Oil, receive the profits from selling air — if they sell air at all (presumably from mechanized air machines). Second, air is free. So of course the profit margin for selling air is going be higher than a gallon of gas. By contrast, the cost of oil accounts for a significant portion of the price of gasoline. So any profits from gasoline sales (which are actually quite small) also go to the gas station owners, after Big Oil has already been paid.

The fact is that a number of people and organizations, including Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, have pointed out that properly inflated tires can increase your gas mileage by 15%.  Would Gingrich say this anywhere else.  I would guess not - Sean Hannity viewers are the least knowledgeable Americans.  He probably couldn't get away with it anywhere else.

Comments

[ALS]

I'm from Tampa, currently serving as a civilian adviser with the Army in Iraq. All the gas stations are required by law in FL, as they are in every state I've ever heard of, to have water and air available on premises. Water is usually free if you ask (for a radiator fill), but air is usually part of a stand aside set up with the vacuum and cost (when I left for Iraq) 50 cents. For 50 cents I could always fill up all four All Terrain tires on my Toyota 4Runner. So this is truly stupid stuff from Speaker Gingrich