President Barack Obama said on Friday that high gasoline prices are sapping the spending power of Americans, as he tried to limit political fallout by linking it to public hostility toward oil companies. "We've got high gas prices, that have been eating away at your paychecks, and that is a headwind that we've got to confront," Obama told auto plant workers in remarks to promote his policies to wean Americans from foreign oil dependence.
Public anger over rising costs at the pump has put pressure on Obama to look for ways to provide quick relief for consumers as he seeks re-election in 2012. Indiana is a presidential battleground state that Obama won narrowly in 2008. The White House said election politics played no role in its selection for a visit.
Opposition Republicans have sought to cast blame on the Democratic president for a surge in gas prices that is straining Americans' pocketbooks at a time of stubbornly high unemployment and sluggish economic recovery. Gas prices have jumped by more than $1 a gallon (3.8 liters) over the past year. Retail prices averaged nearly $4 a gallon on Friday, according to the motorist group AAA.
In a bid to deflect voters' anger, Obama has called for an end to tax breaks for oil and gas companies, opened a probe of market speculators and urged world producers to raise output. Analysts say such measures were unlikely to have much impact. But it touched a popular nerve on Friday. "If you are already paying them at the pump, we don't need to pay them through the tax code," he said to cheers from plant workers who will start making hybrid transmissions in 2013.