海角大神

Rising gasoline prices represent Republicans鈥� latest vector of attack on President Obama, as improving economic data make more difficult a head-on assault on the administration鈥檚 economic policies.

鈥淥ver the past few weeks, the American people have begun to feel the painful effects of President Obama鈥檚 energy policy,鈥� Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday in a statement. 鈥淢ake no mistake: The rising price of gasoline isn鈥檛 simply the result of forces we can鈥檛 control.鈥�

The reached $3.72 on Monday, according to the Energy Information Administration, up more than 3 percent from the prior week and up about 10 percent from a year ago.

What could Mr. Obama do to help, according to GOP leaders? At the top of their agenda is reversing his permit denial for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, a 1,660-mile system that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to the American Gulf Coast. Other Republican complaints include the need to drill more aggressively in the Gulf of Mexico and to nix regulatory red tape.

But such energy projects would take years to produce any actual oil or gasoline. How would they give Americans relief at the pump in the short term?聽

House Speaker John Boehner argued Tuesday that a US energy policy that includes a more vigorous approach to production would signal a serious US intent to become more energy independent and, thus, would help drive prices down for consumers.

鈥淭he more that we can do to show the American people and show the world that we鈥檙e going to move toward energy self-sufficiency, I think that you鈥檒l begin to see prices on the world market coming down,鈥� he said during a briefing,聽in which House Republicans hammered the president over rising prices at the pump.聽

Obama鈥檚 response to such critiques? 鈥淭here are no silver bullets short term鈥� for gas prices, he聽,聽during an address on energy policy.聽America needs to invest in next-generation technologies to help reduce its dependence on oil for the long term, he said.

One reason he's taking hard knocks from the GOP may be that the Republicans' main talking point for the 2012 election 鈥� that the Obama plan for the economy doesn鈥檛 work 鈥� has been undercut somewhat by improving economic data. Indeed, a report Tuesday on American consumer confidence in February showed the public at its most optimistic level in a year, at 70.1. The figure showed a big leap from January's level of 61.5. (As measured by the index, any number over 50 is positive territory for consumer confidence, but the higher the number the greater the level of confidence.)

The national unemployment rate, meanwhile, has fallen from a high of 10 percent in October 2009 to 8.3 percent in January.

Equity markets, too, have been on a tear, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirting with a close above the psychologically significant 13000 threshold and the S&P 500 churning upward nearly 9 percent for the year.

鈥淭he president says he鈥檚 for an all-of-the-above energy plan. I haven鈥檛 seen it. Has anyone seen it?鈥� Mr. Boehner chided.

With the economy perking up, Republicans need a way to keep pounding Obama over pocketbook issues 鈥� and rapidly rising gasoline prices are the best available hammer.