Bush, responding to a question at a press conference about gas prices:

I’ve been talking about gas prices ever since they got high, starting with this — look, I understand gas prices are like a hidden tax. Not a hidden tax, it’s a tax — it’s taking money out of people’s pockets. I know that. (emphasis mine)

Wow…President Dumbass agrees with me on something. Somewhat. If he had the mental capacity to flesh it out & the courage to admit error, then he’d put it the following way:

“I know the dollar is a fiat currency, but you could say in a way it’s pegged to oil. The part of rising fuel costs that isn’t directly attributable to my policy of war for no reason is a result of decreases in buying power. Watering down our currency means US citizens have to work more just to stay in place, making it have the same effect as raising taxes, which the next president will end up having to do barring a miraculous libertarian revolt — either figuratively or literally. Since gas prices are reflecting american purchasing power, this makes the increases, as an effect of true inflation, akin to having raised taxes.”

Following this, the guy in charge of the Stupid switch must’ve woke up, because after that line he made the all-too-common political mistake of thinking a weaning off of crude oil & attempts to lower the price of oil were non-contradictory goals. Again: the problem with gas prices is not the price itself, it’s that it is outpacing our pay. Also, if the true cost of gas were reflected at the pump then there’d be none of this talk about subsidizing ethanol or the purchase of hybrid cars, the market would be unambiguously telling people “dump oil, ASAP” and we’d do it without force involved at all.

Props go to Cunning Realist for sparing me from having to watch that damn thing.