Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Gas Price Myth

Fox Nation has joined Fox News and most of the right-wing noise machine in attempting to slow President’s Obama’s increasing popularity due to the recent trends in the improving economic and employment numbers. They have settled on the issue of rising gas prices as a means of disrupting the President’s positive momentum.

Fox Nation

The only problem with asserting that Obama is responsible for a massive spike in gas prices is that it doesn’t happen to be true. The 83% figure was derived from calculating gas price changes from Obama’s inauguration to the present. But that doesn’t take into account that in the weeks prior to the inauguration there was a worldwide economic meltdown that was the catalyst for a precipitous drop in gas prices. As noted by economists at the time, “The overwhelming cause of the collapse in oil prices has been the faltering world economy, which has fueled the drop in consumption.”

Here are the facts: Gas prices peaked at $4.12 per gallon in the summer of 2008. By the time Obama was inaugurated the following January, the Bush recession that began in the fall had caused prices to drop to $1.61. While everyone likes lower gas prices, nobody wants them to decline due to people being too poor to purchase it. But that’s what happened in late 2008.

Arguably, the rise in gas prices since then validates the Obama economic revival that has produced higher retail fuel consumption. So a proper comparison would not begin at the lowest point of a recession that Obama had nothing to do with. It would begin from the pre-recession market until the present. By that measure gas is 17% lower.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Fox News to present these facts, or any others that make the President look good. Their mission to destroy this presidency and anything that resembles progressivism is more important to Fox than facts.

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3 thoughts on “Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Gas Price Myth

  1. If you take the lowest price of gas per gallon during the bush admin and the highest ppg the increase would be probably over 200%. So what is their point other than to spin negative on Obama. When gas was over $4 during bush, I remember VP Cheney saying, hey if you take inflation into account it is still a lower ppg than during the peak of gas shortages of in the 70’s. If you don’t believe me it is in the public record. Cheney also said deficits don’t matter, Reagan proved that.

  2. Threatening war with Iran drives gas prices up too. Wonder why they do that most frequently every 2 years…I’ll give you three guesses.

  3. The demand for gas has decreased which begs the question, “why hasn’t the price gone down”?

    Speculators have been allowed to manipulate the system thereby keeping gas prices higher despite what the market traditionally dictates. The Koch bros., who are part of the energy industry and who are allowed via regulation or lack thereof, to manipulate the system and keep their profits coming despite the (cough, cough) free market.

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