A new Labor Department survey shows that the Obama administration’s energy policies are fueling an increase in the costs for basic goods across the board.
The report found that the Consumer Price Index, which the federal government uses to track inflation, scored the largest gain in nearly 10 months in February at 0.4 percent. The six percent increase in gas prices last month accounted for most of the increase.
A survey from AAA found that the national average of gas prices stood at $3.83, 32 cents higher than a year ago.
“Obama recently gave a speech saying that higher gas prices are like a tax straight out of your pocketbook,” said Alex Cortes, executive director of Let Freedom Ring, a conservative grassroots advocacy group. “He also said there’s no silver bullets. There are reforms we could use to lower gas prices. One of these bullets look back was used in July 2008 by his predecessor.”
President Bush’s decision to open coastal areas to drilling resulted in the collapse of gas prices from over four dollars per gallon to less than two dollars per gallon.
Cortes noted that college students and recent graduates can’t ill-afford rising gas prices, already over five dollars per gallon in some parts of the country.
“Here’s a president who has added $33,000 in debt to each person in America at a time when student loan debt averages $24,000, and then you add higher gas prices to their share, but he won’t take action today,” Cortes said. “Why, Mr. President?”
Top it off, a Thompson Reuters University of Michigan study suggests overall inflation could hit four percent this year, which could hit younger Americans among the hardest.
Happy Friday.
