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                                                         Obama Set the Price

                                    ... there is no reason for the price of a gallon of gasoline to be above $1.50

                                                                                                             by
                                                                                          
                                                                                            Eric LaMont Gregory 

A president’s passing remarks can have a swift and often dramatic impact on real events.  Two recent statements by President Obama serve to illustrate this fact.

In July, after meeting with his chief economic advisors, the president stated that the price of gasoline could be in the range of $3.50 by summer.  At that time, the price of gasoline stood at about $2.29 a gallon - a result of falling world energy demand and a glut of gasoline in the pipeline.  Within days of the president’s announcement the price of gasoline jumped 50 cents per gallon.  The American public is accustomed to gasoline prices rising in relation to world events i.e., the conflict in the Gaza Strip, every storm that brews and any other event that worries the public. 

Obama had set the price.

There is no reason for the price of a gallon of gasoline to be above $1.50. 

The current price reflects the oil companies desire to remind the American people and President Obama that they can at any time and without recourse exert a significant influence on the economy.  Perhaps, it is time for oil's corporate executives to realise that we are in the throughs of a recession and join with the American people and ask 'what they can do for their country'.  And, that involves keeping the price of gasoline at a level that illustrates an awareness that oil and health care cannot consume a third of GDP without throwing more and more Americans into poverty. 

One dollar and fifty cents a gallon - $1.50 - and not a cent more would indicate that realisation.

More recently, in the heat of the debate on health insurance reform, President Obama questioned the wisdom of a hip replacement for his ailing, terminally ill, grandmother just months before her passing on the eve of his historic election.

The reaction by those fervently opposed to health insurance reform with a ‘public option’ raved, including suggestions that in Great Britain health officials rationed health care to the elderly, an accusation which British health officials quickly labeled as ‘simply rubbish’.

It is worth noting that the British doctor having divorced a patient’s ability to pay from his bedside decision-making has the opportunity to take a more holistic approach to elderly care including the concept of ‘social admittance’.

The concept of social admittance recognizes that there are occasions when a short stay in hospital is the best medicine for some elderly patients who are not at the time actually in need of urgent medical attention.  Such use of medical facilities to forestall medical crises stands in sharp contrast to the bedside decision-making of their 'free enterprise' American counterpart.

The former professor of constitutional law, Barak Obama, had a responsibility to his students to expose his legal decision-making processes to them, the proverbial - thinking out loud.  Those students in their future careers in law will be called upon to exhibit a high degree of judicial reasoning themselves, and exposure to the thinking of a legal scholar is instructive.

But, in an America stunned by the events 9/11 and more accustomed to recent leaders dictating policy rather than reasoning with them, President Obama must be blamed for insisting that the American people think for themselves.  He is, of course, asking a great deal given the circumstances of this country in 2010.

Thinking about the health insurance reform debate, the opposition to reform have centered there arguments on three main topics, euthanasia, rationing and the idea that care would no longer be the best but merely adequate.

President Obama, perhaps a preamble to a health insurance reform bill could go a long way to address these fears.

‘The health care reform bill of 2009 does not permit euthanasia in any way, manner, shape, or form; and nothing in the written text of this bill nor in its intent shall permit or encourage rationing of health care facilities or opportunities for care; and without reservation this bill requires the highest standards of medical practice to be employed in the delivery of care, and for such care to be based on the evidence of best practice as a standard and not as a goal.  No funds from this bill shall be used for the care of undocumented persons except for those from countries with whom we have agreements to care for each others citizens.’

After all, statements made by the president often have a swift and dramatic impact on real events.

Gregory for - Ohio

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