Leadership Quote by Jim Sensenbrenner

“Nearly everyone in Southeast Wisconsin” is doing a lot of work here. Sensenbrenner isn’t just describing a technical market problem; he’s building a chorus. By invoking a shared, local consensus, he turns a pocketbook irritation into civic proof: if the price spikes feel predictable, then the system must be rigged or mismanaged. It’s a classic political move that sidesteps wonky causation (seasonal demand, refinery outages, boutique fuel blends) and plants a simpler, more mobilizing suspicion: somebody set this up badly, or somebody is benefiting.

The timing matters. “After the last two years” signals pattern, not anomaly, a rhetorical upgrade from bad luck to structural failure. “Springtime gas price spikes” is also a deliberately domestic detail; spring is when people start driving more, planning trips, and noticing costs in a visceral way. He’s tying regulation and supply policy to everyday life, making the abstract machinery of markets legible through the most visible price tag in America.

The phrase “something is wrong” stays intentionally vague. It avoids naming villains or prescribing fixes, which keeps the coalition broad: consumers can hear corporate greed, refiners can hear bureaucratic bottlenecks, conservatives can hear overregulation, liberals can hear insufficient oversight. That ambiguity is strategic. It’s less a diagnosis than a permission slip for intervention, framed as common sense demanded by the lived experience of his constituents.