President Obama's weekly radio address was on the subject of high gasoline prices. This is not surprising since the extremely high price for gasoline has been pushing down Obama's approval numbers, and if these prices keep rising, they may push the economy back into a recession. What is surprising, however, is that Obama continues to spout lies about the problem and its solution. We are not talking about philosophical differences here; Obama is out and out lying to the American people to try to get off the hook for his failed record. Let me explain:
Obama starts out by telling us that he recognizes the pain that high gasoline prices cause for ordinary Americans; indeed, Obama says that it is what is most important to him at the moment. (I thought that was his re-election.) then he continues: "So I wanted to take a minute this weekend to explain what steps my Administration is taking when it comes to energy – most importantly, producing more of it while using less of it."
Most people would think at this point that Obama is about to list a variety of steps he is taking to reduce gasoline prices. That is wrong, however. The only action which Obama proposes or even mentions in the speech is a plan for Congress to end $4 billion in "subsidies" to oil companies through the tax code. This is nonsense, and Obama knows it. First of all, America uses over 5 billion barrels of oil each year. At the current price, this is about $550 billion worth of oil. The so-called subsidies are less than one percent of that amount. Even if removing them would lower gasoline prices (which they would not), the size of these payments is so miniscule as to have essentially no effect. Further, raising taxes on oil companies (which is what ending the so-called subsidies would do) will cause oil prices to go higher not lower. Ending the so called subsidies increases the cost of the oil companies. They will raise prices to make up those costs and the price at the pump will just rise further still. Obama knows this well. Even a lawyer like Obama understands supply and demand enough to realize that raising the cost to produce an item (like oil) will not lead to greater supply but to lesser supply. Obama is just busying himself with class warfare rhetoric rather than offering solutions.
Another big lie by Obama comes when he talks about what is causing higher prices. If you listen to his speech, you would think that the rise is just due to unrest in the Middle East (nothing new), more demand in China and India (nothing new) and "fraud and manipulation" in the oil markets. After all, why should Obama accept any responsibility when he can blame those evil bankers and oil traders who are fraudulently manipulating the market to drive up their own profits. This is not true, and Obama catches himself in his own lie. Right after blaming the evil bankers, Obama tells his audience that his administration has stopped this from happening. According to Obama: "When I took office, we did something about it."
How can the price rise be due to fraud and manipulation if Obama stopped this in 2009? Obama never tells us. To make matters worse, Obama is even lying about taking action regarding the oil markets. There are no changes in these markets that have been put in place by Obama; his claim is another lie. Indeed, Obama does not even try to identify any change made to the oil market; he cannot since they do not exist.
Next, Obama goes for the standard drilling lie. Oil production is up due to what he has done, or so says Obama. The truth, however, is that the rise is oil production is despite Obama not because of Obama. Banning drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts did not raise output. Banning drilling off Alaska did not raise output. Closing a big part of the Gulf of Mexico to drilling did not raise output. Slowing the approval of drilling permits in the few areas left in which to drill did not raise output. Closing big chunks of federal lands to drilling did not raise output. Vetoing the Keystone pipeline did not raise oil supplies. Yet, these are the main actions taken by Obama with regard to oil production. When you add in the threats from the administration to stop fracking to produce oil and gas from shale formations, and you find that Obama has actually been responsible for lowering American oil production by something like 10%.
Then Obama goes on to another old chestnut, his lie that the USA has only 2% of the world's oil reserves. I will not explain this one again. The truth is that the USA actually has about 175 times more oil than admitted by Obama. In other words, we have about three and a half times more discoverable oil in this country than all of the "reserves" in the world.
This should suffice to show the dishonest nature of the address. It is amazing to think that in a speech that took less than four minutes, Obama could cram in so many lies. America needs a president who will accept the consequences of his actions and then speak honestly to the people about what needs to be done. Instead we get a president who just blatantly lies about what has been happening. What will we get next week? Obama may tell us that his dog ate the American oil supply.
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