President Obama and his Democratic allies have responded to rising gas prices by insisting there is little, if anything, the administration can do to bring them down.
Obama told students in Miami on Thursday that there is "no silver bullet" when it comes to lowering gas prices. The White House press secretary told reporters this week there are no "magic solutions."
But Democrats haven’t always been so consistent in their message. In fact, one prominent Democrat argued in 2005 that President Bush and Republicans were directly to blame for high gas prices.
Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), then a freshman member of Congress, complained on the House floor about the prospect of paying "more than three dollars a gallon" for gas "for the foreseeable future, if not forever."
The congresswoman blamed the high price of gas on Republicans’ refusal to stand up to oil companies.
DWS: It’s obvious that the Republicans don’t have the joints that they need on the side of their neck, because their heads don’t appear to go this way. [shakes head side-to-side] They only go this way [up-and-down] like this bobble-head elephant.
Apparently, they only know how to say yes, Mr. Speaker, Yes Mr. President, Yes CEO of the oil company, I’m happy to do your bidding and whatever it is that you’d like.
Their necks, unlike ours, don’t appear to go horizontal, side-to-side. Because if they did, then their voting record would reflect ours, and the values of the American people, a lot more closely, and they would have not voted in favor of the energy bill that they put forward last summer.