Obama’s hypocrisy on gas prices

Jack Kelly

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

President Obama is pretending to be upset about rising gas prices, said Jack Kelly, but expensive oil actually suits his administration’s goals. Back in 2008, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, “We have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” Why? So the “green” technologies and electric cars this administration fancies “will seem less uneconomical.” Gas prices have doubled since Obama took office, and the president has ordered another pointless investigation into whether “speculators” are driving up prices.

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This is political posturing; in reality, he “bears much of the blame.” His trillion-dollar deficits have led to the weakening of the dollar, which makes foreign oil more expensive. His muddled policy toward Libya and the Mideast has worsened the uncertainty there. And his offshore-drilling ban has exacerbated the oil market’s feeling of scarcity—another driver of high prices.

When a struggling Pennsylvanian recently questioned the president about high gas prices, Obama flippantly replied, “If you’re only getting eight miles a gallon, you might want to think about a trade-in.” In other words: “Let them eat cake.”