Sometime in the next few weeks, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is likely to top $3.85, headed to $4. When it does, gasoline will cost $2 more per gallon than it did on the day Barack Obama became president.
In his 2008 campaign, Obama often assailed President George W. Bush for "high" gas prices, but voters who thought Obama's criticism of high gas prices under Bush meant the offerer of "Hope and Change" intended to pursue policies to lower gas prices were played for suckers.
As president he has pursued an energy agenda which has done nothing to bring down gas prices in the present day, and opposed projects like the Keystone XL pipeline that might create a few jobs and bring down gasoline prices in the future.
He telegraphed his anti-traditional energy agenda during the campaign, telling NBC's Brian Ross he wanted a "gradual" increase in energy prices, and assailing Americans because "they" like to drive SUVs and keep their homes warmed to 72 degrees in the winter. In 2008, he even stated outright that energy prices had to "necessarily skyrocket" in order to make his beloved "green" energy competitive in the marketplace.
Chronically high gas prices under Obama - now rising to new and economically damaging highs -- are just part of Obama's overall dismal economic record.
Yes, dismal.
At the very moment that the Obama campaign, also known as the liberal media, is touting a few meager crumbs of seemingly positive good news, the reality is that, by a long list of measures, the economy is worse today than it was on the day Obama became president. The MrConservative.com blog has posted a list of 18 statistics that prove it.
The unemployment crisis is worse than it was then, home values have fallen, the cost of health insurance is up, the cost of gas is way up, the number of Americans living in poverty has soared and the size of our national debt has absolutely exploded. Anyone that believes that things are better than they were when Barack Obama was elected is simply being delusional. Yes, things have stabilized somewhat and our economy is not in free fall mode at this point. But don’t be fooled. This bubble of false hope will be short-lived. The problems we are seeing develop in Europe will erupt into another full-fledged global financial crisis and economic conditions in the United States will get even worse. When that happens, what possible "economic solutions" will Barack Obama have for us? We never even came close to recovering from the last great financial crisis, and now something potentially even worse is staring us in the face.
Some of the sobering statistics - which represent real Americans who are facing tough times, include the following: 88 million working-age Americans are not employed and are not even looking for work. More than 30 percent of the unemployed - people who ARE looking for work - have been out of work for more than a year, more than double the rate when Obama became president. Today, there are 5.6 million "long-term unemployed" - up 3 million since January 2009. Not only are Americans paying almost double for gasoline, the price of health insurance has risen 23 percent, while home values - the primary "nest egg" for millions of Americans - have declined 13 percent. Since Obama entered the White House, there are six million more people living in poverty (as defined by the government) and 14 million more people who need food stamps to survive.
Millions of Americans who bought into Obama's rhetoric of "Hope and Change," only to have seen their lives wrecked by the reality of his agenda and his incompetence need to be made aware of these facts. These statistics -- along with the national debt data on the same list -- should be kept handy by anyone looking to promote honesty this campaign season.
