The Presidency and the Pump
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Americans are paying more these days for gasoline, and they’re naturally not happy about it. The New York Sun started yesterday running a daily graphic on page two with some of the highest and lowest gas prices in the city, along with the national average. Yesterday it showed prices in the city as high as $1.99 a gallon for regular unleaded.
The presidential candidates are glomming onto the gas issue, too. President Bush yesterday announced a new campaign advertisement attacking Senator Kerry for having supported a 50-cents-a gallon gasoline tax. The Bush campaign Web site features a “Kerry Gas Tax Calculator,” where voters can enter the make, model, and year of their car, the average number of miles they drive each week, and then figure out how much Mr. Kerry’s 50-cent gas tax would cost them a year.”Raising taxes is a habit of Kerry’s. He supported higher gasoline taxes 11 times,” the Bush campaign commercial says.
Mr. Kerry, for his part, blamed Mr. Bush for higher gas prices.”While candidate Bush promised to address gas prices, he has simply let the problem fester,” a Kerry campaign press release said yesterday.
Truth is, neither Mr. Kerry nor Mr. Bush is to blame for higher gasoline prices. The real villain here is Saudi Arabia. Riyadh poses as an American ally while supporting terrorism, cracking down on human rights, and taking a leading role in the oil cartel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, that has America over a barrel, so to speak.
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali Naimi, told reporters at Vienna yesterday that OPEC should go ahead with its plans to produce even less oil. The production cuts would likely mean a rise in gas prices for American consumers. Coming on the heels of King Fahd’s “warmest condolences” to the family of Hamas leader Sheik Yassin, it’s enough to infuriate American voters.
Mr. Kerry, at least, promised to “pressure OPEC to start providing more oil.” But the method of pressure he promised — “real diplomacy” — won’t exactly have the Saudis shaking in their boots. The Saudis are long past the point of being dealt with diplomatically by America. And a candidate, Republican or Democrat, who recognizes that will have an advantage with the voters, who are fed up with having to pay at the pump so that Saudis can live like royalty.
