Area Men Who've Never Met a Credit Limit They Respected Propose Borrowing More Money to Pay for the Gas Their War Made Expensive
The Hill: When You Need a Take Too Dumb for USA Today, You Know Where to Publish
Some ideas are so bad they deserve a participation trophy in the hall of fame for fiscal illiteracy. David Eisner and Mark Rosen managed to combine magical thinking with military madness in The Hill this week by proposing a wartime gasoline rebate for Americans. Let us translate that from policy speak into plain English. The government is spending billions of dollars to bomb Iran. Because of that bombing, gas prices went up. Now Eisner and Rosen want the government to borrow even more money to give Americans a rebate so they can afford the expensive gas that the bombing caused. This is like setting your neighbor’s house on fire and then asking your other neighbors to chip in for your marshmallow budget (Eisner & Rosen, 2026).
Math Does Not Care About Political Spin
First, let us look at the math, because math does not care about political spin. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the federal deficit for fiscal year 2025 totaled $1.8 trillion. That is the amount the government borrows in a single year. Meanwhile, the total national debt, which is the accumulation of all that borrowing over decades, surged past $36 trillion back in late 2024 and has been climbing ever since (Congressional Budget Office, 2025; Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, 2024). So when the authors suggest piling a new gas subsidy on top of the war bill, they are not proposing relief. They are proposing to use a credit card to pay for a war, and then using a second credit card to buy stickers that say everything is fine.
Our Spies Said Relax, We Bombed Anyway
Then there is the small matter of why we are in this war at all. The official story is that Iran posed an imminent nuclear threat that had to be stopped immediately. The problem is that America’s own spies already looked at the evidence and came to a different conclusion. On March 25, 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified before lawmakers that the intelligence community continues to assess Iran had not made a decision to build a nuclear weapon (C-SPAN, 2025). That is not a footnote. That is the top intelligence official in the country telling Congress under oath that the justification for a shooting war was shaky at best. A war of necessity is one thing. A war of choice based on intelligence the administration itself ignored is something else entirely. Offering taxpayers a gas rebate for a war we did not need to start adds insult to injury, then charges interest on both.
Funny How That Timing Works
Now let us talk about timing, because timing is rarely accidental in Washington. Over a year ago, Representative Dan Goldman sent a formal letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding the full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, accusing the Department of Justice of deliberately sitting on documents that could implicate powerful people (Denver Gazette, 2025). Those files are still being dribbled out today, and now, in May 2026, The Hill publishes an op-ed asking for wartime gas subsidies. Maybe it is pure coincidence. Maybe it is pure hubris. Or maybe when the public starts asking uncomfortable questions about who visited which island, a nice loud war with a coupon attached makes for excellent background noise. I am not saying there is a secret master plan scrawled on a napkin somewhere. I am saying that if you want Americans to stop looking at one scandal, handing them a subsidy check while bombs fall is a pretty reliable way to grab the remote control.
The Receipts Say We Are Broke
A gasoline rebate is not a solution. It is a bribe paid with your own borrowed money. If policymakers actually cared about the pressure on households, they would stop the war that is causing the price spike instead of borrowing billions to break your legs and then selling you crutches at a markup. Americans do not need another temporary subsidy that permanent politicians can tout on cable news. They need honesty, accountability, and leaders who do not treat the national credit card like a toy. Show me the receipts, and the receipts say we cannot afford this war, let alone a rebate to celebrate it.
If you believed Dace Potas had cornered the market on getting paid to write spectacular nonsense, Eisner and Rosen are here to prove the supply of terrible ideas is truly limitless. Marvel at their budgetary atrocity here: https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/economy-budget/5874351-temporary-gasoline-subsidy-iran/
Works Cited
Congressional Budget Office. (2025). Monthly budget review: Summary for fiscal year 2025. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61307
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. (2024). Gross national debt reaches $36 trillion. https://www.crfb.org/press-releases/gross-national-debt-reaches-36-trillion
C-SPAN. (2025, March 25). User clip: Tulsi Gabbard: Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. https://www.c-span.org/clip/senate-committee/user-clip-tulsi-gabbard-iran-is-not-building-a-nuclear-weapon/5166205
Denver Gazette. (2025, May 12). Goldman accuses Bondi of preventing release of Epstein files, demands documents. https://www.denvergazette.com/2025/05/12/goldman-accuses-bondi-of-preventing-release-of-epstein-files-demands-documents/
Eisner, D. F., & Rosen, M. (2026, May 13). A wartime gasoline rebate that strengthens America’s hand. The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/economy-budget/5874351-temporary-gasoline-subsidy-iran/