Okay, Republicans, you can stop cheering now
If you lean out your window, you can probably hear Republicans around the country cheering for high gas prices. Not because they want Americans to use less of this polluting fossil fuel and decrease our dependence on Mideast oil. No, it’s because they are literally counting on gas prices to be the death knell for President Obama’s reelection campaign. It doesn’t matter that he’s not responsible for it (hint, hint: it’s Wall Street.) That doesn’t matter one bit.
Here’s the problem: rising gas prices aren’t actually dampening the economy.
A huge fear of people was that gas prices would sap consumer spending. Forget that.The ICSC-Goldman weekly same-store retail sales index is surging.
For the last week, retail sales were up 4.2% from a year ago, the best number of the year.
Sorry, Republicans. You’ll have to find another dog that will hunt because this one certainly won’t. Maybe you could keep up that whole War on Women thing. That seems to be working out so well. Not.
[CC image credit: Micov | Wikimedia Commons]
