Tom Cotton says “Arkansans are rightfully feeling pressure at the pump.” Cotton is wrong, there is nothing right about the war that is costing Arkansans at the pump.

LITTLE ROCK —  This week, Tom Cotton announced a bill he says would lower the cost of gasoline that has skyrocketed since the beginning of the war in Iran he championed. “Arkansans are rightfully feeling pressure at the pump,” said Senator Cotton in a press release on his website announcing the measure. 

“Because of Tom Cotton’s war Arkansans are feeling the pain every time they fill up at the pump,” said Hallie Shoffner, candidate for U.S. Senate from Arkansas. “Gas costs too much and Arkansans are pumping their paychecks straight into their gas tanks. American service members are dead because of Tom Cotton’s war. Already stressed farmers are not sure how they’re going to pay for record high diesel prices. Now when it’s six weeks before an election, after doing everything he could for more than a decade to get us here, he shows up with a bill that stands no chance of providing any meaningful relief. It’s far too little, way too late.”

Shoffner knows the cost of gas because she’s been traveling the state for more than a year listening to Arkansans’ cost concerns and the pain of not knowing how to stretch their paychecks as the cost of gas, groceries and health care tick steadily up. 

Cotton’s latest fuel bill is a kickback to his largest donors after the House has already gone into recess until after the November election, meaning there is no chance for any real world action before the end of the year. Even if it were to pass and be implemented, it’s not even clear that the oil produced would ever lower U.S. gasoline prices at all, much less enough to offset the amount that Cotton’s Iran War has driven them up. 

“It’s clear that Tom Cotton supported going to war without looking at a map first,” said Shoffner. “If Tom Cotton wants to brag, it’s fair to say that he doesn’t understand global energy supply chains and is the most economically incompetent senator we’ve ever had.”

Using his seat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Tom Cotton has been steadily marching the United States toward a war with Iran since 2015. He claimed such a war would be over in “several days.” Then in February, after years of prodding the President, when the U.S. began the latest conflict with Iran, he revised his estimate to “weeks, not days.” 

It’s been six months with no end in sight. At least 19 U.S. soldiers have been killed. Gas prices are up in Arkansas from $2.58 per gallon of regular unleaded in February to $4.07 per gallon today. Diesel hit an all-time record high earlier this month and remains at $6.19 per gallon. 

It is clear that despite all his hawkish talk, Cotton either didn’t fully understand what he was advocating or didn’t care that Arkansans would have to pay a steep price for his war. 

In April, Cotton proposed a similarly unworkable fuel plan of a temporary suspension on federal penalties for on-road use of red diesel fuel. Putting red dye diesel in a truck, while not damaging, could void the warranty, make it harder to fin