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Analysis: The Biden White House is spiking the football on gas prices? Really?

July 19, 2022

Gas prices over the previous 34 days had dropped by 50 cents per gallon, he said, which amounts to “one of the fastest declines in retail gas prices in a decade.”

Except … the national average price for a gallon of regular gas was still $4.52 that day, according to AAA. (On Tuesday, the price dipped below $4.50.)

A year ago, the average was at $3.17 a gallon. Which makes Bernstein’s celebration feel a bit premature?

It’s like scoring a touchdown and doing a victory dance in the end zone when you’re still losing 35-7. Like, see the bigger picture, my dude.

The truth here is that President Joe Biden’s administration is looking for any good news at the moment. His job approval rating is the upper 30s and approval for his handling of the economy and inflation is even lower, according to new polling from CNN. That same poll showed that almost 7 in 10 Americans (68%) said that Biden hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems.

It’s a very difficult tightrope for the administration to walk. On the one hand, they want the American people to feel like prices are headed in the right direction (down). On the other, prices for everything — and especially gas — are far higher than they were a year ago, and people feel that pinch every day.

Earlier this month, Biden tried to service both of those goals in a somewhat awkward way. “Gas prices are still way too high, and have fallen 25 days in a row,” he said. “And this week we saw the second largest single day decrease in gas prices in a decade. We still have a lot of work to do.”

So, gas prices are too high and they are way down? Like I said, awkward.

Biden’s desperation to find a way to bring prices down likely played a factor in his decision to meet (and fist-bump) with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a trip to the Middle East last week.

Ethics watchdogs criticized the meeting, noting that the US intelligence community had concluded that bin Salman approved of an operation to capture or kill Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018.

For Biden, getting face time with the leader of an oil-rich nation, however, was too good an opportunity to pass up. “I’m doing all I can to increase the [oil] supply for the United States of America, which I expect to happen,” Biden said after his meeting with bin Salman. “The Saudis share that urgency and based on our discussions today, I expect we will see further steps in the coming weeks.”

Bernstein, for his part, predicted Monday that Americans should expect “to see average prices fall below $4 per gallon in more places in the coming week.”

Which, if that happens, would be something to actually celebrate. As it is, it looks like the Biden administration is spiking the football on about the 40-yard line.

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