Should Obama take the blame for rapidly rising gasoline prices? I’d say not very much, although his reckless spending binge is driving down the value of the dollar and that has some impact.

Anyway, Don Boudreaux examines this issue in the letter below. He has no sympathy for Obama, who created the ridiculous expectation that he could solve all of the world’s problems in his quest for the White House.


Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC  20071

Dear Editor:

Stephen Stromberg is correct that the recent run-up in gasoline prices isn't the 
fault of President Obama ("President Obama says that gas prices reflect supply 
and demand," April 27).  But Mr. Stromberg is wrong to pity Mr. Obama for 
nevertheless being blamed by the public for their pain at the pumps.

Mr. Obama, like so many elected officials, won office by deluding voters with a 
grand image of a government that, in the right hands, can fix nearly every 
problem that troubles the good people of this republic - a government that can 
fix all that is broken, can cure all social ills (and many physical ones, too), 
and can transform this vale of trade-offs, scarcities, chance, and imperfections 
into a paradise in which the only suffering is that of Evil Villains finally 
brought to justice for the depredations that they've for so long inflicted upon 
the pure, noble, all-deserving We the People.

Because Mr. Obama assured us that with him at the helm Uncle Sam's powers to 
"change" society would be vast and amazing, he deserves no pity for being held 
accountable for his inability to perform the marvels that he promised to 
perform.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University