Deregulation

Democrats' Gaslighting, Republicans' Temper Tantrum Endanger America's Gas Stoves

The White House insists it doesn't want to ban gas stoves but still needs the power to do so.

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Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) | Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
( Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom)

President Joe Biden—despite his administration insisting it had no interest in banning gas stoves—has said that he would veto a Republican-backed bill that would prevent him from doing just that.

It turns out he won't have to.

Earlier this week, conservative Freedom Caucus members in the House joined with their Democratic colleagues to block two bills protecting gas stoves from federal bans and restrictions. They say it's payback for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) forcing through a debt ceiling deal without their consent.

"Today, we took down the rule because we're frustrated at the way this place is operating," said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–Fla.) on Tuesday, per the Washington Examiner.

"We warned them not to cut that deal without coming down and sit down and talk to us. So this is all about restoring a process that will fundamentally change things back to what was working," agreed Rep. Chip Roy (R–Texas).

Just like that, a chance to protect a beloved kitchen appliance from the federal government's regulatory onslaught against "things that work" has died.

Politics is a petty business. The fact that lawmakers would kill one bill because they didn't get their way on another isn't too outside the norm. It is nevertheless incredibly frustrating that the Freedom Caucus would target these particular bills with its temper tantrum.

There's only so much a Republican-led House can do for libertarians. One area where it could be expected to do some good is in stopping the federal government from ripping appliances out of people's walls.

For all his faults, former President Donald Trump was a sterling defender of appliance freedom. His administration's deregulatory drive tried to restore Americans' rights to buy dishwashers that clean dishes and showerheads that gush like waterfalls. The Biden administration is hard at work undoing this legacy with proposed new regulations on over a dozen appliance categories.

Despite their normally slavish devotion to the former president, the Freedom Caucus is failing to protect Trump's legacy by joining with Democrats to block legislative protections for gas stoves.

This isn't to let Democrats off the hook at all. They're the aggressors in the gas stove wars.

We wouldn't need Republicans to protect gas stoves if federal regulators weren't musing about banning them and if states and cities weren't adopting their own prohibitions.

The justifications for these bans, on both climate and health grounds, are incredibly flimsy. Democrats' suggestion that people can't decide for themselves how best to cook a meal in their own homes is just offensive. Their insistence that gas stove bans aren't actually happening is positively infuriating.

In a recent statement promising to veto Republicans' gas stove bills, the Biden administration insisted that it has no interest in banning these appliances but still needs the power to do so.

Anyone with a shred of self-governing self-respect should be filled with righteous anger over all of this.

And yet, when it comes time for a Republican-led House of Representatives to convert that righteous anger into productive policy, lawmakers collapse into intraparty bickering. Sad!