Gas prices are too damn high, right? Right.

California state governments wants to do something about it, right? Right.

California has among the highest gas taxes, at 51.1 cents per gallon, in the country, right? Right.

Imagine if gas prices could be slashed, immediately, 51.1 cents per gallon.

That would help people, right? Right.

States like Georgia and Maryland have already suspended their gas taxes, because it’s not hard to do if the political will and money is there to do it.

A recent attempt by Republicans in the Assembly to suspend gas taxes was overwhelmingly rejected. Democrats, it seems, are more interested in turning a problem that could be solved quickly and reasonably into just another government welfare program.

Newsom wants to waste time and money by calling for $400 debit cards to go out to everyone who has a registered car in the state, with a maximum of two. Oh and it’ll take until July for relief to actually arrive.

A group of Assembly Democrats, led by Asm. Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Huntington Beach, likewise introduced legislation to send $400 to every taxpayer, regardless of income.

“This is a much more thoughtful proposal than a cut in the gas tax because a cut in the gas tax has no guarantee that money will end up in the pocket of consumers,” said Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, according to KGET.com, who is evidently confused about how buying gas works.

Meanwhile, according to CalMatters, “Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a Lakewood Democrat, endorsed an idea to give $200 payments to each California taxpayer and their dependents.”

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It’s really, really not hard. Just suspend the gas tax.

Suspending the gas tax equals relief from pain at the pump. It’s not hard. It’s easy. Georgia did it. Maryland did it. Connecticut did it.

“People need relief now,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher to the Associated Press. “We’ve got now, like, four different competing plans amongst the Democrats. These guys are going to negotiate against themselves for weeks to months and who knows what we’re going to get.”

Yup. Democrats say they’re the ones looking out for the little guy, but they consistently show that’s a fiction. The obvious solution for working families here is to suspend the gas tax. If they want a convoluted solution, they could at least suspend the gas tax while they’re busy figuring that out.

Alas, this is the California Way, apparently. Wasting time. Dreaming up bureaucratic solutions. Desperately clinging to high taxes at any cost. As long as Californians keep electing out-of-touch dolts to the Legislature, that’s what they’ll continue to get.

Sal Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected].