Biden's search for scapegoats' on fuel prices
As rising prices at the pump continue to squeeze wallets, President Joe Biden has stepped up attacks on oil corporations that he claims are charging motorists more just to pad their pockets.
It was the latest scapegoat for the high fuel costs that have put political pressure on Democrats. Biden and his aides had previously attempted to pin the blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine prompted Biden to ban imports of Russian oil and gas earlier this month.
That messaging had begun to fall flat under scrutiny.
The price of gasoline had indeed risen more dramatically in the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, but the cost of fuel had already been climbing for months before the oil embargo.
On Feb. 24, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the average per-gallon cost of gasoline was $3.52. On Friday, the average was $4.27, according to AAA.
In November 2021, long before the violence began, gas prices were up nearly 60% over what they were in November 2020 — rising from $2.20 to $3.49 in that time.
Biden’s rhetorical pivot marked an effort to point the finger at a familiar foe for Democrats: Big Oil.
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The price of oil and gas rose because Biden limited the supply on purpose starting on his first day as President. He wanted it to rise until it became a political liability and then he went looking for scapegoats. It was also a Democrat policy that they liked and his Energy Secretary even laughed about it. Now that they are facing a shellacking in the mid-terms they may be having second thoughts on the political ramifications of their policy.
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