More on the High Gas Prices Canard

     Media Matters makes the point that what would do a lot to protect us from high oil prices is to lessen consumption which can be achieved by alternative energy and of course better fuel efficiency. So in point of fact Obama has done a lot that will serve us well in the long term, by his greatly increasing fuel efficiency standards, down the road.

    Of course these positive effects won't be felt immediately, which enables the GOP to play short-term games-this is their same strategy with the Affordable HealthCare Act. But Media Matters actually makes another point that I didn't think about in the past but is dead on, that as oil is a global market who owns it and sells it makes much less difference than talk of "energy independence" suggests.

    Of course this is a simple-that is to say simplistic- issue that the GOP thinks could work-it's a desperation move as nothing else is. The calculus is this-people do see gas going up week after week, day after day, and on the other hand most people don't know much about economics-most people, most Americans at least, are afraid of simply mathematics. It's a lot simpler to understand "Obama did this. He must be punished!" than that this is part of global supply and demand and that there is little that Obama or any President can do about this in the short-term.

   So Fox News of course has been going to town:

    "More Than Half Of Fox News Coverage Falsely Suggested Obama Is Responsible. Our results show that Fox News covered gas prices far more often than other news outlets -- more than CNN and MSNBC combined. 55% of Fox News coverage suggested that President Obama is to blame for rising gas prices. In total, Fox blamed Obama 144 times in two months - more than three times as much as all other news outlets combined. These figures include guest quotes if they were not challenged by the anchor or author."

     Meanwhile in the real world:

     "Energy economist Severin Borenstein, a professor at U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business, explained: "Oil prices drive gasoline prices and current oil prices are high. But $125 per barrel oil today is no more the fault of President Obama than $147 oil was President Bush's fault in June 2008. There is very little the U.S. president can do to change oil prices over months or a few years. U.S. oil production was up 13 percent in 2011 over 2008, but still remains less than one-tenth of the world oil market." [U.S. News & World Report, 3/2/12]."

     "In a U.S. News & World Report column, Cato Institute fellows Peter Van Doren and Jerry Taylor wrote: "President Obama is no more responsible for production increases than other presidents were responsible for production declines. Unfortunately, presidents get blamed for world market changes that occur during their time in office ... but generally, they do not cause them." [U.S. News & World Report, 3/2/12"

     Notice this last point was made by Cato men. One wonders if David Koch is successful in taking over Cato such honest analysis will be possible anymore.