On December 6th 2005 the average price for gas at the pump in Los Angeles was $2.36 per gallon today, July 5th  2008, the lowest price I saw at an ARCO in southeastern Norwalk at the corner of Carmenita and Rosecrans was $4.39 per gallon.

What has changed between now and then?

For one thing Congress changed hands, and now is controlled by the Democrat Party.

What have they done with regards to gas prices?  They passed HR 6 in December of 2007, which mandated corn based ethanol make up a larger portion of the gas that comes through the pump.  While neither Presidential candidate voted on the bill, due to them campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire, Barack Obama claimed he was for the bill, claiming it would reduce global warming, and John McCain dismissed it as a bill chocked full of pork and earmarks. This change in the law raised the price of corn on the commodities market and gasoline at the pump. This bill also gave a huge incentive to many wheat farmers to plow under their wheat fields and plant corn. In the recent Midwest Flood, many levies gave way, polluting the soil and wiping out acres of corn and soybeans.   

By the way, corn is a major ingredient in animal feed, so by raising the price of corn, the price of beef, pork, poultry, and dairy products also is raised.   Also natural gas is a primary ingredient in the production of commercial fertilizer, so high gas prices have also raised the price of fertilizer, which has raised the prices for fruit, vegetables, and various grains.

Barack Obama has dismissed John McCain's energy policy of lifting the ban on offshore drilling as only lowering the price of gas a few cents, while putting at risk our environment.  This bit of shotgun analysis ignores the advances in oil drilling technology.

This also ignores the fact that Communist Cuba is exploring for oil off the coast of Florida closer than Federal Law allows American companies to drill, primarily because Federal Law extends the drilling ban for American companies into international waters.

Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress have instead proposed a windfall profits tax, as his big idea of how to lower gas prices.  However, what would stop that tax from being passed onto the rest of us as a cost of doing business?

So if gas prices due to the policies of a Democrat controlled Congress are over $2.00 a gallon for gas than under the energy policies of a Republican controlled Congress; and if the Constitution gives only to Congress the power to write laws; Who is to blame for high gas & food prices?

P.S. in the article linked above the following is written:

Cuba clearly is interested in developing its deep-water oil resources, estimated at more than 5 billion barrel, including areas within 60 miles of Key West, Fla., energy experts said.

Jorge Pinon, a senior energy fellow at the University of Miami specializing in Latin America, said Cuba has awarded offshore oil leases, or concessionary blocs, in its offshore waters to six oil companies -- none of them Chinese -- and soon may announce an agreement with Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras.