The president of the United States is not responsible for the high price of gas in America. That was a point Fox News was making in 2008, when the price of gas was soaring during the George W. Bush Administration. Top Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was among those defending President Bush from criticism that he was to blame for the extremely high price for a gallon of gas.
However, when gas prices were again shooting up in 2012, conservatives were quick to blame President Obama. Either the president is - or is not - to blame for dramatic increases in gas prices.
Defending the president, claiming he is not to blame for the high price of gas in 2008 and then blaming the president for the high price of gas in 2012 clearly exposes the hypocrisy of politics in America.
Today, conservatives are quick to blame President Biden for the skyrocketing price of gas and specifically point to Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline project. Gas prices plummeted during the height of the COVID pandemic because demand fell.
The forces of supply and demand are an integral part of the economy. Demand was low and prices fell. But as the wounds of the pandemic have healed - the economy has taken off and demand for gas has increased.
Let’s remember that American greed has contributed to the high cost of gas.
Domestic oil producers have not had the incentive to make America self-sufficient with oil production because of the cost of production. The American mentality demands the lowest prices now, and there is less emphasis on the future.
Today, President Biden announced a ban on buying oil from Russia, which will certainly cause another surge in gas prices. Polls indicate that a high majority of Americans are willing to pay more for gas in exchange for banning Russian oil. That reflects America’s willingness to support the people of Ukraine.
There are many factors that determine the price of a gallon of gas, and playing the blame game is as useless as it is typical. We seem to be looking for simple excuses for complicated problems.
The blaming of a president for rising gas prices bespeaks the tendency to make everything political. We love to have a villain to blame. When gas prices rose in 2008 - President Bush was the villain. In 2012 - President Obama was the villain. With the dramatic increase in gas prices today in 2022 - President Biden is the villain. But history shows that blaming or defending a president in the face of gas prices soaring depends - not on reality - but on politics.
And the thought to the Keystone Pipeline would have averted the current surge in gas prices is too simplistic to be true. The pipeline was expected to carry 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to the U.S. That has less to do with drilling for oil and more to do with transporting oil that has been drilled.
The question we have to ask ourselves is: are Americans actually willing to pay the price of being totally independent when it comes to oil? When times have been good - I don’t believe Americans - as a whole - have been willing to pay more to make our future more independent.
