'Thought you hated socialism?' Chuck Grassley's fuel fix backfires spectacularly

With Americans having paid around $97 billion more for fuel since the Trump administration launched its deeply unpopular war against Iran, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is doubling down on his proposals to curb gas prices, some of which, critics noted, bore similarities to price control policies in socialist countries.

On Saturday, Grassley proposed President Donald Trump enact 1970s-era emergency embargoes on diesel fuel, which as of Monday, cost an average of $6.51 a gallon, an all-time high. His proposal was apparently dismissed by “big oil,” Grassley revealed Sunday, with the Iowa senator shifting to suggest oil companies artificially reduce their profit margins on diesel when selling to farmers and truckers.

“Big Oil is telling us we can’t embargo diesel. IF TRUE THEY STILL DONT HV TO MAKE SAME PROFIT OFF US FARMERS AND TRUCKERS THAT THEY MAKE IN FOREIGN SALES,” Grassley wrote in a social media post on X. “AMERICA FIRST.”

Government-mandated price controls have been imposed by the United States in the past, as well as in other nations operating under capitalist systems. Socialist governments have historically enacted price controls, albeit under a different system of collective ownership of a nation’s means of production.

Nevertheless, Grassley’s pitch to arbitrarily limit the profits of private companies was met with mockery from a number of onlookers.

“I thought you hated socialism?” asked Richard Ojeda, a former West Virginia state senator and U.S. Army veteran, in a social media post on X. “This sounds a little bit like Socialism for me and not for thee, Senator.”

Florida Congressional candidate Todd Schaeferdeclared that, with Grassley’s latest proposal, the United States had “officially reached the price and export controls stage of American 'free market' capitalism.” Prominent liberal influencer Carlos Turnbull told Grassley that it was “interesting you revert to socialism whenever your interests are threatened."

Macroeconomist Philip Pilkington argued that Grassley ultimately bore responsibility for the record-high fuel costs in the United States given his support for the U.S. war against Iran.

“Grassley supported the war. Now he is leading the ‘rebellion’ against higher fuel prices,” Pilkington wrote in a social media post on X. “The American political system is now completely fake. The incentive structure encourages people to destroy the country to get more influence.”