Bush and the Four Dollar Gallon

In June 2000, then-presidential candidate George W. Bush told reporters, according to CNN, that Al Gore was responsible for spiking oil prices. Gore, said the GOP man, "writes in a book that he thinks we ought to have higher fuel prices, and now that he's running for president and there's higher fuel prices, he seems to be changing his tune."

Bush's words were part of a steady drumbeat of conservative criticism launched at the Clinton administration, and laced with anti-environmental, and anti-tax rhetoric, over high gas prices. In the twelve months from June 1999 to June 2000, oil prices on the world market had climbed to a shocking $34 a barrel; meanwhile, in America, at-the-pump prices had jumped by over 40 percent, averaging a hard-to-fathom $1.71 a gallon by mid-2000, according to the Heritage Foundation. Some poor sods in out-of-the-way locales were having to fork over more than $2 a gallon. And, said the Republicans, it was all the fault of wooly-headed greens and their big-tax politico friends. It was also, many Republicans let it be known, the fault of OPEC... those greedy foreigners out to squeeze every last dollar from their liquid gold assets.

Ah... those innocent, halcyon days. Seven years of GOP-rule, and a half-decade of middle-eastern wars later, oil prices are about to hit $100 a barrel. And in many parts of America, especially rural areas far from distribution pipelines, consumers are facing the imminent prospect of the $4 gallon. (Actually, I paid over $4 a gallon in towns along the eastern edge of the High Sierra several months ago; my guess is today some village gas stations in remote desert and mountain wildernesses are paying up to $4.50.)

At the same time, because the Republicans so aggressively squashed attempts to raise the minimum wage during the first six years of the Bush presidency, tens of millions of Americans are earning about the same wages they were earning back in 2000 when they were hit so hard by the $2 gallon.

The scandal is in the combo of high energy prices and low wages.

Poor people can't afford newer, more environmentally sensible cars, so they make their old gaz-guzzlers last well into automotive senility. I wrote about people in this sorry situation last year, back when gas prices were hitting the then-unfathomable $3 mark and poor people in rural counties working minimum wage jobs found themselves spending upwards of twenty percent of their income buying gas to drive to their dead-end jobs.

If gas was hitting $4 a gallon because Bush had had a road-to-Damascus awakening and had prodded Congress to enact a $2 a gallon gasoline tax so that billions of dollars could be raised for R & D into carbon-neutral energy technologies, subsidies so that poor people could afford more efficient vehicles, and a better public transport infrastructure, I'd say more power to him. But the fact is the per-barrel cost of gas is now close to triple what it was when prices peaked in 2000, and all those tens of billions of extra dollars Americans now have to spend annually filling their tanks are flowing into the treasuries of oil-producing countries and into the flush bank accounts of transnational oil companies. It's an absolutely stunning transfer of funds and rearrangement of geopolitical power.

So where's the outrage of the Heritage Foundation, and the concern for the little people now? In particular, where is Bush - the man who blamed the $2 gallon on a hypothetical call for higher gas taxes - today, when people earning scandalously low wages, at least in part because of his administration's antipathy to the minimum wage, are spending a quarter of their meager paycheck simply filling up their cars to drive to work? The answer is asleep on the job, unable, because of his addiction to free market ideology, to think up creative subsidies, tax rebates and other financial and regulatory mechanisms that could ease the pain of poor people left to the oh-so-tender mercies of global energy markets.

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Comments

[realitybase]

I worked at a service station in the 70's when people could only get gas depending on the even or odd last digit of their license plate. Obscenities and brawls broke out in lines (one person was killed) just to get a full tank. The price of gas where I lived was less than a dollar.

If the country had listened to Jimmy Carter and rationed themselves, wore sweaters and swore off of imported oil and investing in alternative energy we WOULD NOT be in this mess. Carter put solar panels on the WHITE HOUSE roof and started energy tax credits. Reagan got rid of them both the panels and the energy credits. Thanks to the neocons we've been conned again.
.

[kasa5400]

Second thing:

In the article linked it says " 41-year-old Rosie Kerr, a resident of Grenada who works as a secretary at the Northern California Indian Development Council on Yreka's Main Street and drives a 1992 blue Ford Explorer with 164,000 miles on it. Before taxes, Kerr, a mother of four whose husband is currently unemployed, earns about $21,000 a year. After taxes, she estimates, that works out to $1,200 per month."

In this article you describe the linked article as "poor people in rural counties working minimum wage jobs."


Translate: She is making $10+ an hour - and that is NOT minimum wage but instead nearly 2 x minimum wage at the time.

Translate: Family is living at 101.69% of Federal Poverty Level for 4 people.

Did you, or any other passing do-gooder type, bother to tell her that:

(a) they would qualify for Food Stamps as the eligiblity cutoff is 150% FPL after taking into consideration certain expenses.

(b) The kids at least, and probably the parents, should qualify for Medicaid and/or SCHIP.

(c) They should qualify for the Low Income Heating and Cooling Assistance program.

All in all, they need to get themselves to the welfare office (and get rid of that blasted SUV and get a used Escort which is cheaper than a Honda Civic.)

[blackwell98]

Thanks for a great post Sasha.

I have been saying for a while that Bush has a plan. I call it "The 5 Dollar Plan"
5 Dollar/gal gas.
5 Dollar/loaf bread.
5 Dollar/gal Milk.
5 Dollar/hour Job.

[cynara]

I am waiting, now rather impatiently, for the righteous media outrage with the President over the ever climbing fuel prices, especially since the latest round of price increases are due, according to analyst, to the rhetoric between the US and Iran. Where is the media accountability?

[kasa5400]

I read the article which you linked. Here are some quotes:

"they are going to do whatever it takes--sho­rt-changin­g themselves on food and medicine, charging the gas on credit cards, deferring car repairs or upgrades to better, more fuel-efficient vehicles

Kerr's old Explorer gets only twelve to fifteen miles per gallon; her husband's 1974 truck gets even worse mileage. In a rational world, both would be able to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. In the Siskiyou County of 2005, however, neither can scrape together enough to make the upgrade."

You make the assumption that 'new' is better.

The people in the article need to DOWNGRADE their vehicles, not upgrade.

Dump the SUV (no sympathy from this quarter) and paark the pickup.

Go buy an older used Escort. They get 30mpg city/35 mpg hwy.

They can even go on Ebay (perfectly safe for buying cars) and spend less than $3000 for one.

You would have to drive a Prius 1,000,000 miles to break even on the purchase cost of a Prius and its fuel consumption but excluding replacing that $4800 battery array versus an older Escort and its fuel consumption even when gas is at $3.50 a gallon. Seems like a no brainer.

[Curedlib]

How do you feel about drilling in ANRW and offshore? Nuclear power? Don't like 'em, then you're part of the problem too.

[FullChat]

This is just part of the great plan to make more money for the oil companies. Did you know that Bush doubled the size of the oil reserves during periods of short supply and that shot up the price again...

[snaggster]

But 9/11 changed EVERYTHING!

[magen]

You make me long for the beautiful bygone years of peace, prosperity, and heterosexual political scandals.

[hopeless277]

You're expecting the scorpion to kiss you instead of sting you? Again for the millionth time, IT'S NOT IN HIS NATURE.

[maddogbitesback]

Americans voted for Bush. They allowed a court to appoint him president. The facts were known. They preferred to believe the lies instead of looking at the known facts. Americans - have you had enough or will you vote Republican again. Remember the firefighters oppose Giulliani. You do know that don't you. Remeber Pat Robertson has endorsed him. Everybody knows that three Republican candidates believe in creationism. Everybody know that the war in Iraq was based on lies and on a desire to control oil. Everybody knows three million jobs have been lost since Bush was president. Everybody knows, but once again a lot of people will vote for more of the same.

[ceu]

On the bright side, all Bush's buddies are raking in the dough hand over fist....