Why are these people so happy?
Jan 15, 2015, 7:54 AM | Updated: 9:58 am
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Someday, we will tell our children that this was the week gas broke the $2 barrier.
“Did you not hear me scream when I got out of the car? $1.92!”
“Check her out! $1.99 a gallon! I gots to get some of that!”
“It is now a reality here in Connecticut: gas prices for under $2 a gallon.”
“There it is folks. A $1.98 a gallon. Every damn truck shows up on the scene.”
“Booyah.”
We do live in historic times.
“But Dave,” you say, “big deal! I remember when I was a kid, gas was .31 cents a gallon!”
So do I.
That would have been in 1960 – average price of gas in the U.S. was 31 cents a gallon. And when you correct for inflation, that’s equivalent to $2.47 today.
So today’s $2 gas would be the equivalent of paying 25 cents in 1960. And in fact, correcting for inflation, gas is at the same price as it was when Barack Obama took office.
And you know who called it? Do you remember? Lots of people dismissed it as mere political posturing at the time, but back in 2011, while running for president, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota made a promise.
“Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 again. That will happen,” she said.
She proposed the “No More Excuses Energy Act” and promised $2 gasoline within four years.
Commentators dismissed it, “The experts say claims like this are running on empty.”
Yet, here we are. Not only do we have gas dropping to historically low levels, but we have the remarkable case of a presidential candidate who managed to keep her promise without even getting on the ballot.