President Joe Biden announced Thursday he is going to start releasing a million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum preserve for the next six months to control spiking energy costs. The addition to the nation’s fuel supply should impact the price at the pump, which is contributing mightily to the nation’s inflation problem.

This is a good first step on the way to taming inflation, but it isn’t a fix-it. Inflation is a complex problem with a multitude of factors and it is not going to be solved easily.

Republicans have their own ideas about gas prices, including issuing more oil permits and allowing more projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Biden administration canceled. While Republicans are not wrong, it is time to stop complaining and to start doing something.

Solving the cost of gasoline and the rising cost of inflation will require a multi-faceted approach, and it is going to take Republicans and Democrats working together to come up with a cohesive government plan. Such a plan might include another round of stimulus checks, an admittedly short term solution that will not solve inflation but will help the average consumer deal with it. It could include government assistance for manufacturing businesses that are producing goods at higher costs, for various reasons, costs that are then passed on to consumers.

It could include tax decreases, especially temporary suspension of federal and state gasoline taxes. Minnesota, for instance, has a $10 billion budget surplus that would allow it to suspend the gas tax this summer, say, with the lost revenue for roads being taken from the surplus.

The question is, will the lawmakers in Washington be willing to work together over the next few months, or will Republicans be content to bash Biden and the Democrats all the way up to the November election, when they hope to regain control of Congress?

That’s the easy way for Republicans to go, but it won’t get much done for the people who are paying inflated prices for food, gas and everything else.