Michele Bachmann blamed President Obama for high gas prices at last weekend’s RightOnline Conference Minneapolis, Minnesota:
If you want to sum up this election I think in some of the most simple terms, think of it this way. On the day that Barack Obama took office, the price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.79 a gallon. Today, it’s about $3.75.
Video: Michele Bachmann's comments on gas prices start at 9:00
Fact check:
Michele Bachmann is right when she calls her analysis of trends in gas prices “simple”. Gas prices were lower when Barack Obama took office in January of 2009. However, gas prices hit a record high in July of 2008, when the national average topped $4.11 a gallon. At the time, Republican George W. Bush remained President of the United States.
Follow the money:
The RightOnline Conference is officially described as “a project of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation dedicated to advancing liberty and prosperity for all Americans through greater citizen participation online.”
Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) has close ties to the oil industry. Chairman David Koch is the Executive Vice President of Koch Industries, a company that has been involved in the petroleum industry since 1940. In 2011, Koch reached #18 on Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires, with a net worth of $22 billion. Interestingly, he ran as the Libertarian Party candidate for vice president in 1980, the same year Republican Ronald Reagan was elected president for the first time.
Richard Fink serves as AFPF's Director and is also an Executive Vice President of Koch Industries. All told, members of Koch Industry’s Board of Directors control two of the five seats on AFPF’s Board of Directors.
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