Last summer, with gas prices rising, several leading Republicans came up with a curious accusation: President Obama was causing pain at the pump deliberately, as part of some undefined environmental agenda. This odd line was pushed by Haley Barbour and the Koch brothers, among others.
In the ensuing months, prices came back down, and the talking point went away. Apparently, it's back.
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich this morning chided the Obama administration, saying the president has "a goal getting us to pay European-level prices" for gas.
If it were only coming from Gingrich, this might be easier to dismiss, but it's an increasingly common line of attack. Even Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), allegedly one of the GOP's grown-ups, told Fox News last week that imposing higher gas prices on American consumers is the "conscious policy of this administration."
Much of this seems to be the result of a foolish interpretation of recent congressional testimony from Energy Secretary Steven Chu, but even putting that aside, I wonder if Republicans seriously expect anyone to believe their rhetoric on this. The argument Americans are supposed to believe is that President Obama, in an election year, not only has the power to manipulate gas prices at will, but is trying to raise them -- on purpose -- to the dismay of consumers.
The follow-up question is rather straightforward: why on earth would Obama want to do that? It doesn't even take much in the way of critical thinking skills to know the answer: he wouldn't.
Unfortunately for Republicans, the attack isn't likely to work, not only because it's painfully foolish, but because there's polling data that suggests Americans aren't inclined to blame the president for gas prices anyway.
In fact, Jared Bernstein published this chart the other day, noting that the public is increasingly less likely to blame the president for pain at the pump than it was in 2005.
Jared Bernstein chart
Jared added, "That's a good sign, because there's just about nothing a president or any other policy maker can do about this in the near term. More drilling wouldn't help and, in fact, domestic energy production is way up."
Someone might want to let Newt Gingrich and Mitch Daniels know.
Leave a Comment:
"...I wonder if Republicans seriously expect anyone to believe their rhetoric on this."
Of course they do! They also don't expect for anyone to remember when the Bush mis-administration manipulated gas to well over $4.00 (depending on where you live)! I realize that I was supposed to forget how badly I was hurting under the Bush mis-administration, somehow that's not a financial pain that I'm likely going to forget!
" I wonder if Republicans seriously expect anyone to believe their rhetoric on this."
Steve overlooks two cogent facts: The IQ level of the American Public and the skin color of POTUS.
Wasn't Newt the same guy that suggested oil companies were manipulating prices to hurt President Obama's 2nd term chances?
In America, we are fortunate that we are paying among the lowest rates of excise taxes on gasoline, particularly compared to Europe. As shown here, in some European nations, the excise tax on gasoline alone exceeds the average pump price here:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/09/americas-gasoline-excise-tax-mighty.html
With Washington fighting rising debt levels, it will be interesting to see how long it is before they submit to the siren song of higher excise taxes on gasoline.
Less global fuel demand = lower fuel prices. IMO, the first politician to committ to a practical solution for the pain at the gas pump will be the winner.
Here's two US homegrown (Beavercreek, Oregon) disruptive gas price solutions for your reader's consideration. The demo video: http://bit.ly/yircFW shows the ready potential for lower fuel (gas, CNG, other) demand and the resulting price decline.
OUR GOALS
1. We seek $2.5 m (US) next round funding from interested investors and/or potential production and/or distribution partners for multi-national, patent protected Vapor Fuel Technology - www.mpgleader.com.
This solution helps US (and other consumers) and fleet managers achieve a 30.1% fuel savings and also helps automotive and commercial vehicle OEM's and their franchised dealers solve the 54.5mpg (US) CAFE requirement.
Aftermarket and after-sales consumer and fleet vehicle US retrofits (gas or CNG) alone are initially estimated at over 3-5m (N. America alone).
2. Separately, we seek $600K (US) next round funding for our new Absolute Safety Tire patented design solution - http://www.tirestud.com - as extends and retract studs to enhance winter traction, produce compressed air to maintain correct pressure within the tires and provide a visual and audible indication of tire wear beyond the recommended limit.
This tire industry game-changer features another estimated 3.3% mpg advantage over conventional tires.
Contact:
Andrew Gross
Managing Member of Business & Marketing
Absolute Business Solutions, LLC
Clackamas, Oregon (US)
503-891-8985
agross6325@aol.com
Raymond Bushnell
Managing Member of Technology
Absolute Business Solutions, LLC
Clackamas, Oregon (US)
503-351-2401
bushnell@teleport.com
It's red meat for the base. Never forget that the Republican strategy for thirty years has been to work on amping up the passion of their base, even if it repels independents. Independents don't turn out all that much, and with the relatively low turnout in American elections there's more to be gained from cranking up right-wing turnout than from trying for a share of the center.
Someone also needs to let the general public know that US gas production is up. But you would never know that if you relied on Democrats publicizing it.
Gas boycott proposal at http://www.change.org/petitions/2-99-gas