Massachusetts Dems to drivers: Drop dead!

At least this time the Republicans got a roll-call vote, 29-11, but the headline at the State House didn’t change.

Democrats to voters: Drop dead.

The Commonwealth is flush with funny money from D.C. — billions upon billions in surplus, so much cash gushing into state coffers that the payroll patriots can’t even come up with a ballpark estimate of how much they’re in the black.

Yet the Beacon Hill banditos still claim that suspending the state’s 24-cent-a-gallon gas tax is a “stunt” or a “gimmick.”

The kleptocrats say they can’t “afford” to stop robbing their constituents.

Why is it that even deep-blue Connecticut can figure out that dumping the gas tax for a few months is a good idea? New Hampshire is likewise getting closer to a moratorium, but they have a GOP legislature and governor.

Georgia and Maryland have suspended their state gas taxes as well. On Wednesday, a listener texted me he was driving south on I-95 and had just paid $3.56 a gallon to fill up in Maryland.

Two years ago, $3.56 a gallon would have seemed like a nightmare. Now it feels like happy days are here again.

Thanks Brandon!

It’s not just the price of gasoline either. It’s home-heating oil, propane, shrinkflation, empty store shelves. People are angry, and no matter how much state-run media tries to change the subject, the Democrats can run but they can’t hide.

I ask my radio-show listeners to tell me what they would like to thank the Biden administration for. I know, these are all anecdotes, as the Democrats like to say. Taken out of context, cherry-picked – all the same cliches the card-carrying fellow travelers are trotting out this week at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.

But everybody knows how bad it is right now, and they’ll remember in November.

Here’s a sampling of my recent calls and texts:

From Rambo 413: “Milk Bone 15-lb. warehouse club size went from $10.99 to $17.49.”

From area code 513: “I used to buy turkey bacon at Sam’s Club for $9.99. Now it’s $13.99.”

From 617: “Thanks Brandon for the updated 12-pack seltzer-can fridge packs that are now 8 cans for the same price.”

Joe: “I used to like the quarter-pounder with cheese at McDonald’s but $4 is just too much. So now I get the regular burger for a buck-30. I throw out the top bun and then I fold the patty over and wrap the bottom half of the bun around the burger and that’s my new quarter-pounder.”

From 407: “Just filled up the oil tank at the house — $5.29 a gallon. Almost $1000. But no mean tweets!”

From 603: “A five-pound bag of sugar is now four pounds.”

Joe: “Here’s a couple of things you can’t find anymore. A half-gallon of ice cream. Or a baker’s dozen – that’s 13. Everything’s been shrunk.”

From 978: “Maxwell House canister coffee was once $5.99, now $8.79.”

From 774: “Thanks Brandon for making me pay $5 for a Shamrock Shake.”

From 919: “Hamburger Helper is popular again.”

From 401: “I filled my tank today for $60 at $4.15 a gallon at BJ’s. Two weeks ago, I paid $3.33 a gallon.”

From 978: “I want to thank Brandon for the fact that every time I go to Market Basket now I feel like I just left Whole Foods.”

Nothing the Biden administration does makes any sense. For example, to punish Putin for the invasion of Ukraine, the NATO allies at our behest shut down his energy pipeline. Because that’s bad for Russia.

But it’s good for America to shut down our Keystone XL pipeline.

For the first time in decades, people are talking about “going underground,” to avoid paying taxes. All this inflation and the empty store shelves are just two more indignities heaped on the modern-day helots in the Democrats’ Brave New World.

I got a call from a guy in New Hampshire who’s been required to wear a mask since July 1, 2020 — he still remembers the date.

“I’m a city bus driver,” he told me. “I’m two years from retirement and I’m starting to think I’ll have to wear the damn thing to the very end. Can I quote Laura Ingraham? ‘Fifteen years to flatten the curve.’ ”

From 978: “They’re even changing the on-line recipes because of shrinkflation. Tuna casserole — the recipe used to call for 2 6-oz. cans, now it’s 3 4-oz. cans. And it’s still one can of celery soup, only you can’t get 12-oz. cans anymore. They’re only 10.5 ounces.”

Mr. Garcia from Newark: “I got a pit bull named Dutch. He loves liver. It used to cost $1.69 a pound. Now it’s $4.69, and that’s if I can find any.”

From 774: “Deli roast beef is up to $14 a pound. Such a deal!”

From 508: “Thank you Brandon for the $1.89 Hershey bar.”

From 617: “They used to sell 10-packs of D-size batteries. Now they’re 8 per pack, but hey it’s the same price. LOL!”

Joe: “In 2017, I bought a nice van, Mercedes. Trump was president, gas was $1.79. I just drove to the Outer Banks, it cost me $5 for gas in NJ. Reg gas in NC right now is $4.16.”

From 617: “My son went to the local 7/11 for a soda & a bag of chips. It’s now double what it was a year ago. His allowance doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.”

Do the hacks on Beacon Hill care about any of this? You know, they just reopened the State House after being on vacation, er, closed, for more than 700 days.

Now, at the State House, the doors again are open. But the minds are closed.

And their constituents’ wallets are empty.