The Not-So-High Price of Oil

Just like everyone else, I have felt the effect of high oil prices in my wallet. It was particularly hard this summer, having to drive a considerable distance each day just to work, and having gasoline jump up every time I went to fill up. However, I am very disappointed by some people’s immediate reaction to attack President Bush over the high price of Oil. It is not his fault, and some simple logic easily defeats the “It’s Bush’s Fault” mentality.

Firstly, Bush isn’t a CEO of an oil company. The Bush family may happen to own stock in oil companies, just as millions of other Americans do (including Michael Moore!), but they do not tell the oil companies what to charge.

The fact that oil prices are so high has relatively little to do with the Bush family, and has more to do with past Presidents and Congresses who have refused to issue permits to oil companies to build new refineries in America, and denied them the right to drill for American oil in places like ANWR, leaving us vulnerable to foreign consortiums, like OPEC, who regularly raise the price to gouge us “evil Americans.”

Also, if you consider the true worth of the US currency, and inflation, gasoline isn’t much higher than it always has been. In 1960 when you paid 25 cents a gallon, gold was $40 an ounce. Today, it’s over $400 an ounce, and gas is $2.50 on average. If you compare other goods, such as food, you can likewise see that gas doesn’t cost much more than it always has when compared to other goods and services. Inflation is ultimately to blame, and the higher price is actually an illusion.

So, nobody with a lick of common sense or common decency can stand up and say that President George W. Bush is to blame for the seemingly high oil prices today. Those few who still do obviously do not know what they are talking about, and only sound ignorant and petty.