Posted on 10/07/2026 7:40:25 AM PDT by MtnClimber
You can’t open a newspaper or watch cable news these days without seeing a story about the pain and suffering Americans are feeling at the pump, with scary headlines such as “no relief in sight” and “the worst is yet to come.”
Actually, when it comes to gas prices, the worst has come and gone – three times – all while Democrats were in the White House. Not that you’d ever know that from the mainstream media.
Shortly after those headlines ran, gas prices started to moderate. AAA says they are down by about 10 cents a gallon from a week ago. That’s not much, but it’s far from “soaring.”
And while it’s true that President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Iranian regime have pushed oil prices sharply upward, you have to consider everything in context.
When news reports talk about “record high” prices, they aren’t accounting for inflation. When you do that, today’s prices are far from the highest they’ve ever been.
As a reader service, we compiled monthly data on real (inflation-adjusted) gas prices starting in 1977 – the year Jimmy Carter took office.
We then averaged them for each administration.
What do you see? Except for the Clinton administration, prices have been unusually high under Democrats, and relatively low under Republicans.
Reagan’s average is on the high end because he inherited sky-high gas prices from Jimmy “Malaise” Carter. When Reagan came into office, gas was over $5 a gallon in today’s dollars. The month he left office, it was $2.40.
Clinton, in contrast, inherited low prices from George H.W. Bush, which were $2.48 in his first month in office but were on their way up when he left – averaging $2.9 a gallon in his last year.
Although you’d never know it from the coverage, Barack Obama presided over stratospheric prices for the entirety of his two terms in office – when they averaged $4.32 a gallon. Democrats weren’t complaining, and the media treated it as an inevitability while Obama chanted that “you can’t drill your way to cheap gas.”
But you could. And prices came down sharply under Trump, only to go flying back up Joe “We’re Going to End Fossil Fuels” Biden. Even with the spike in prices from the Iran conflict since Trump came back into office, they are still averaging below where they were under Biden.
Here’s another way to look at it. Over the past 50 years, inflation-adjusted prices topped $5 a gallon in a total of 53 months. A Republican was in the White House in only 14 of those months. Six happened in early 1981, when Reagan was liberating the oil industry from price controls. The others were during the 2008 financial crisis that happened during George W. Bush’s term.
The high prices under Carter, Obama, and Biden were the direct result of bad energy policies. Price controls and rationing in the case of Carter, and the “climate change” war on fossil fuels under Obama and Biden (a war that any future Democratic president will restart).
Now go back and read all those news accounts and see if any of them reflect these realities.
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An inconvenient truth.
Gas prices are up 40% in the past year. I doubt very much that voters in aggregate have much interest in tables going back to Carter.
Regular was about $2.75 on January 1. Without the war, it’d probably be under $2.50 toady.
To the ignorant, which we have in abundance, today’s price is all that matters. “You want your regular with or without radioactive additive?” If the dems again lead folks down the garden path, you may see a drop but it won’t be as much or last as long. The ecowackos will demand more refinery closures.
Oh no. It’s convenient.
The price of oil (cheap at $89) and the price of diesel have become disconnected because we don’t refine our own fuel. Due to Democrat regulations and laws, we haven’t built a refinery in the USA since 1979.
The Democrats try to blame Iran, but the problem is domestic stupidity.
Baloney.
The price of oil is cheap ($89).
It’s a domestic refinery issue.
“Regular was about $2.75 on January 1. Without the war, it’d probably be under $2.50 toady.”
Utterly false.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2026/10/04/america-has-plenty-of-oil-but-not-enough-diesel/
We shut down 2 major refineries just before we engaged in Iran. Prices were going up before Iran- especially in the Western States. We had to import fuel to replace US refined fuel..at a higher price.
That’s $22 more than before the war. A pretty big difference.
As to our refining capacity, did that decline since the onset of hostilities?
No it’s not a material difference in crude prices. It’s noise. Try your nonsense with someone who doesn’t product oil for a living. All producers have forward contracts. The only thing happening is people who are betting on Wall Street either made or lost money. The buyers and sellers of actual oil don’t notice minor swings like this.
Just compare the price of oil under Obama (well over $100) and the price of diesel (cheaper).
As for “why”? There are a lot of them, notably refineries shutting off, but it’s not the price of crude.
That’s a lot of nonsense to take in, but let’s just try to decipher this:
“All producers have forward contracts. The only thing happening is people who are betting on Wall Street either made or lost money. The buyers and sellers of actual oil don’t notice minor swings like this.”
Are you say that in the oilpatch, WTI prices on the NYMEX are immaterial?
Obama hasn’t been president for a decade. American voters could not care less about oil prices in the Obama administrations any more than they could care about hog belly prices in the Coolidge administration.
[By the way, the “well over $100” price you cite is pure fantasy. WTI averaged about $77 from 2009-2017.]
You need to add the fact these were California refineries that blended the CA required special blends, that also bled off into NV and AZ.
Since they still mandate this blend, and unlike last term, Trump’s EPA has not revoked the waiver, they now get this special blend from the east coast, and hilariously enough, the area around the straight of Hormuz. Of course at an even larger premium then it was prior for this very special blend.
According to charts, our gas prices here are higher than they were under Biden, except we don’t know what grade is shown in the chart. At any rate they,like grocery prices, are too high.
According to charts, our gas prices here are higher than they were under Biden, except we don’t know what grade is shown in the chart. At any rate they,like grocery prices, are too high.
“WTI averaged about $77 from 2009-2017.”
Now multiply that by 1.49 to get today’s dollars.
Give you a hint: $114.73.
BTW, oil was $110 in 2011 during Obama. Or $163.90 in today’s dollars.
You really are an economic illiterate. And a liar.
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