The Price of Gas: Are Americans dumb?
Democracy and Power 108: Obfuscation
Wherever politics intrudes upon economic life, political success is readily attained by saying what people like to hear rather than what is demonstrably true. Instead of safeguarding truth and honesty, the state then tends to become a major source of insincerity and mendacity. —Hans F. Sennholz
The Price of Gas: Are Americans dumb?
Are Americans dumb? Jonathan Gruber, the architect of ObamaCare, knew obfuscation and deceit were necessary to pass ObamaCare and went so far as to call the American people “dumb.” Sadly, it seems deceit and obfuscation continues to surround our current administration with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). Rep. Schultz proclaims our crashing gas prices are due to the Democrats.
In an opinion article posted by CNN, America is roaring back to life, Schultz takes credit for our improving economy, specifically addressing the decrease in our gas prices:
The American people are also saving money at the pump. In fact, the United States is now the world’s number one producer of oil and natural gas, and gas prices are headed to their lowest level in 11 years — a decrease that is expected to save American families $550 next year. …
These are the accomplishments of a President who is fighting every day to make life better for American families and a Democratic Party that is fighting right alongside him.
Gas prices are crashing because of good ol’ American ingenuity through fracking and horizontal drilling. Tragically, our gas prices should have been lower years ago, but our President and his cronies attempted to stop fracking and waged an all-out war on hydrocarbons. Truth be told, the price of gas could probably go lower.
Victor Davis Hanson, awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007, recalls President Obama and his administration mocking the idea of $2 per gallon gasoline.
In the vice presidential debates of 2008, Joe Biden mocked Sarah Palin for the supposedly mindless campaign mantra of "Drill, baby, drill." Biden intoned that, "It will take 10 years for one drop of oil to come out of any of the wells that are going to be drilled."
The energy secretary-designate, the professorial Steven Chu, in 2008 had unwisely voiced a widely held but wisely unspoken progressive belief that, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe" — or about $9 a gallon.
Just two years ago, when up for re-election, Obama reminded Americans, "We can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices." Obama ridiculed the Republican idea of lowering gas to $2 a gallon through new oil-recovery techniques.
"They’re already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas," Obama mocked. "I’ll save you the suspense: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling."
Simultaneous to Schultz’s obfuscation, President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released additional restrictions on hydrocarbons. Stephen Moore of Investor Business Daily explains:
The rules would, among other things, curtail methane emissions from natural gas and oil, place new restrictions on fracking, impose further limits on Arctic drilling and impose new safety standards on rail tanker cars.
Never mind that the oil and gas industry has to rely on rail to transport petroleum because Obama has blocked the far cleaner and more efficient alternative of moving oil and gas through pipelines.
Are Americans dumb? Really? With our expanding sources of information, old-time political obfuscation can not prevail. If you think about it, it’s probably the reason the Democratic party is losing working Americans.
