One Practical Measure of the Cost of Obama's MENA Follies

It has been widely reported that Obama's Kinetic Military Action (his words) in Libya has thus far cost the U.S. taxpayers $600,000,000.00 and that the ongoing costs are projected at $100,000,000.00 per week, or $430,000,000.00 per month.

Since the government simply prints the money it does not have, and it does not have any, most taxpayers are not feeling the pinch of Obama's not-a-war.

Of course, Libya is but one of the follies in the Middle East/North Africa which are going on under the incompetent watch of our Dear Leader.  Since February 24, 2011, when Libya was in conflict and Egypt and Tunisia had already expelled their dictators, the price of gasoline in my area has increased from $3.02 a gallon to $3.64 a gallon.

Doing a bit of simple math, let's assume that there are, conservatively, about 75,000,000 regular automobile drivers in this country of 310,000,000 people.  Assuming that each driver uses ten gallons of gasoline a week, on average, each driver is paying an additional $6.20 per week for gasoline.  With 4.3 weeks in the average month, that would amount to an additional $26.66 for gasoline each month. 

While this does not seem like a substantial additional sum to be paying for gasoline, multiply that number by the 75,000,000 drivers.  That is an additional $1,999,500,000.00 spent on gasoline each month.

Since we import about 60% of the oil used in the U.S., it seems fair to assume that 60% of the refined gasoline comes from imported oil.  If gasoline prices have increased $0.62 per gallon across the U.S. since February 24, 2011, we will be transferring an additional $1,199,700,000.00 of our wealth out of the country each month. 

The $600,000,000.00 in funny money frittered by the Obama administration pales in comparison with the real cost to motorists of Obama's MENA follies.