The Republican Trademark: High Oil and Gas Prices

I wrote a three part series not long ago titled, "The economy, which party performs best" going back to the Reagan Administration.  It detailed why the country, its people and the economy did so much better under Bill Clinton, a democrat who not only had a sound fiscal policy but returned the government to balanced budgets and surpluses.

 

Now we have a chance to compare those four administrations and how their actions and policies affected the price of a barrel of Oil.  Reminder to the reader.  The reason I start with the Reagan administration is that is when the neocon republican presidents started to tell the American people they were the ones who can best deal with the economy, balance the federal budget, cut spending and so on.  But the record is clear, it was Bill Clinton who had the best economic plans, fiscal policies and a commitment to balance the federal budget and it worked.

 

The following is the average yearly price of a barrel of Oil during their administrations.  It does not show the higher or low price but the average yearly price adjusted for inflation thru December 2007.

 

Reagan Administration  1981-1988   8 years                    Yearly average  $51.37/barrel

 

Bush 41 Administration 1989-1992   4 years                     Yearly average  $32.04/barrel

 

Clinton Administration   1993-2000   8 years                     Yearly average   $23.88/barrel

 

Bush 43                       2001-2007   7 years **                  Yearly average   $43.83/barrel

 

**  Note the final number is not in yet for the year 2008 but so far oil has hit an all time high.  So when Bush 43 leaves office the yearly average will be over $43.83/barrel.

 

We know a sound, broad based economic policy with fiscal discipline addresses most all of the parameters that is necessary for a sustained economy with low inflation.  The Clinton administration produced just that.  The Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 administrations lacked the fundamentals necessary for a broad based economic policy.  That the yearly average in the price of a barrel of Oil under the Clinton administration was the lowest by far during the past 27 years, 19 under Republican control, shows just how well the country and its people did under Clinton in all  area's of the economy.

 

The so called conservative Republican Presidents have a tax cutting policy to seduce the people and then stick it to the country and the people in a hundred different ways including high Oil and Gas prices.  It is time for America to wake up.

 

Information shown herein for the Oil averages computed from information taken from InflationData.Com, Historic Oil Prices.