Gas Prices: the Disease or the Cure?

I was speaking with a colleague at work the other day.  We were discussing the general state of the economy.  We always have interesting discussions because we see things through the lenses of opposite political views.  He is, generally speaking, often liberal.  I am rather conservative.

My colleague made the point that he felt that if the Administration could figure out a way to get gas prices down to $2.00 to $2.50 a gallon, the economy would take off.  He also felt that the President would be re-elected in a landslide. I found it difficult to disagree with his logic.

However, it occurred to me this morning that thinking of gas prices in this way is wrong.  You see, the price of gas is not what is wrong with the economy.  The price of gas is a symptom of the disease it is not the disease.  Simply having a change in the price of gasoline will not fix the fundamental problems with the economy.  The cure to the disease has to be a fundamental shift in economic policy in the current Administration.  The country needs to significantly reduce government borrowing, stabilize taxes, decrease the cost of doing business in the US trough the loosening of regulation on business and repeal ObamaCare which has cost the economy 800,000 jobs by most estimates.

And, since I don’t think the Administration would be willing to do any of the above, I don’t see any way that gas prices will go down.  Therefore, the President will have a pretty tough time come November 2012.