Why won't the President place a cap on gas prices?

Question

Why won't the President place a cap on gas prices?

Answer 1

because he's in on it. Him and his whole generation of family will be rich forever.

Answer 2

Because of the Shortage of gas, every where... Peace out.

Answer 3

If the president were to place a cap on gas prices it would cause a demand surge making gas even more expensive in the long run.

Answer 4

Because the US is a capitalist nation, and if he did that it would not help the gas companies or the economy.

Answer 5

Why won't the liberals let us drill our own oil. maybe that will bring the price down.

Answer 6

That was tried in the '70's.  It didn't work then, and it won't work now.

It caused a shortage, and you could only buy gas on certain days at a much higher price.

EDIT:  Good point, Ken.  Sign the petition at www.americansolutions.com

Answer 7

Because price caps lead to shortages.

Think about it this way:

You sell a widget for $4.00 and make $0.32 profit off  of each widget.  (Oil companies make 8 cents off of each gallon of gas sold.)

The government enacts price controls on widgets - but the costs of your producing the widgets goes up by $0.35 each.

You now have a choice: lose money selling widgets or get out of the widget business.

I was around the last time price controls were put on gasoline - and remember the gas shortage (and gas rationing)  it caused.

Answer 8

1.) the U.S. Constitution doesn't allow him to do that.

2.) That's called an artificial restraint. If the President stupidly attempted to do that, then there would actually be a shortage of gas. Yes, there would be a shortage. It happened in the 1970s. People could only get gas every other day. This was enforced by your license plate. If the last digit of your plat was odd, you could get gas Monday. If it was even, you could get gas Tuesday. That's how they did the "every other day" rationing of gas.

3.) History: The U.S. Government thought it could tell the oil companies what to do. The oil companies laughed, gave the U.S. government the middle finger, and it's pretty clear who won the fight.... If we mess with them again, there simply won't be any oil.

Answer 9

Because he is the one who removed the price cap in place when he was installed in office.  He wants "market forces" to control the price of oil.  In other words, he wants the monopolistic oil companies to reap obscene profits while the common citizen is raped due to governmental policies which has led to heavy usage of transportation based on fossil fuel.

Drilling in Anwar will be a drop in the bucket and is just the right wing spin to deflect attention from the fact that Big Oil is making historic profits by gouging the American consumer and anyone else they can.  Americans were assured of lower priced gas because the cost of our military patrolling the waterways and controlling sensitive areas was the price we paid for cheap gas.  With the Oil junta in the White House, we are all screwed with high price of gas, food and any other commodity that needs to be transported or made with petroleum products.

Answer 10

because the Bush family is in bed with the oil companys have been for along time

Answer 11

I would  have to agree with truean1

Answer 12

Because it's the President's power, constitutionally, to enforce laws not make them.  That's Congress' bailiwick, and they know any attempt to cap gas prices, even should one get enough votes, would get vetoed and sent back to die.  Politically, it's a hot potato because it affects all costs of gettings goods from one place to another.  

An executive order the President could sign would also fail because such a law would ultimately kill competition.  Currently, all the gas companies are running on a treadmill.  They're comprised of human beings who know prices are high.  But if they lower their prices, they lose profit and ultimately lose product, driving them out of business.  The fault comes from there not being enough supply (due to "do-gooders" who refuse to allow drilling in wildlife refuges, et. al.), not lack of demand.

Answer 13

darkwolf is right on. He has had ties to the Saudis and oil since he got out of college.

Answer 14

Ha ha ha

And who is going to pay the difference with the market price???

Taxpayers?

Answer 15

Of course if we put a cap on gas prices then we must put caps on other things too....milk, bread, wages, income, etc.  In spite of the current high price we still have cheaper gas than most any other western nation.