On January 19, 2009, the day before Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States, gas prices were $1.84 a gallon. As of February 20, 2012 a gallon of gas cost $3.59.
This is #3 among a list of seven gas facts that Obama can't escape, as explored by Wynton Hall of Breitbart's Big Government. Among the seven, surface several inconvenient clips of Obama in his own words, all compiled during his initial 2008 campaign, tying the rise in gas prices to his overarching energy policies as president. He told us, folks...
In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama admitted that, like his future Energy Secretary Mr. Chu, he believed that high gas prices would be a good thing because they would force Americans to ween themselves off of oil, but that he would have “prefered a gradual adjustment.”
In 2008, Barack Obama seemed perfectly comfortable with soaring energy prices if they meant curbing green house gas emissions. As Mr. Obama confessed: “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
As seen in the video below, Obama’s own 2008 campaign rallies actually cheered higher gas prices because they would “force us to think about changing the culture to create more emphasis on mass transportation.” Following the sustained applause, then candidate-Obama proceeded to laud Europe (not unlike his future Energy Secretary Steven Chu) for its rail system.
Try as he might, President Obama’s campaign will try to distance themselves from the fact that a central pillar of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign was a pledge to reduce the “pain at the pump” caused by high gas prices. However, videos such as the one below reveal the extent to which Mr. Obama promised that, if elected, he would bring down the cost of gas for “everyday Americans.” Missing no opportunity to invoke class warfare, Mr. Obama said: “For the well-off in this country, high gas prices are mostly an annoyance. But to most Americans, they are a huge problem, bordering on a crisis. Here in Indiana, gas costs $3.60 a gallon.”
Today, gas prices in Indiana are $3.74/gal...and with national gas prices at their highest for this time of year EVER, fears grow over what the summer spike might have in store for us.
He's told us so from the very beginning, so the multitude of excuses Obama professes as the source of this price surge grow harder and harder to swallow. And I actually tend to agree with the stance that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) expressed in a local op-ed:
To prop up his claim that his policies are working and the U.S. economy is turning the corner, President Obama recently offered some dubious evidence: rising gas prices. He said gas prices are rising “because as the economy strengthens, global demand for oil increases.”
That’s absurd. Far from indicating this White House’s policies are working, the skyrocketing price of oil indicates they are driving our economy into the ditch. They also show the President’s lack of leadership in coming up with a coherent energy policy that creates jobs, keeps gas prices low, develops our domestic resources and lessens our dependence on foreign oil.
Almost as absurd as his green dreams, as discussed by Rush and a caller employed at Kent BioEnergy (oops, forgot about those carbon emissions!).
