$4.06 Per Gallon in MIchigan?

In the news this morning, gas prices in Michigan have topped the $4 dollar mark. The average price in the state is now a record $4.06 per gallon. What effect this will have is unclear.

Or is it? With unemployment in Michigan under 9% for the first time since September 2008, it is fair to wonder how gas prices will affect that modestly downward trend. Especially when you consider that an unemployment rate of 8.8% isn't exactly healthy anyway, and as gas prices affect the economy in about the most pervasive manner (what isn't affected by gas prices?), it seems absurd to think it would help ease the woes of those who cannot find work. All this before we consider Michigan's rate of those who have given up finding full time work. That rate is right around 17%. That's one in six people.

But wait, there's more. In a state which values the tourist dollar as much as Michigan does, how many folks won't travel here from our neighboring states simply because of added fuel costs? How many people from southern Michigan won't go to Northern Michigan just because of the cost of gas?

On another surely related note, the City of Detroit has announced cuts in its bus service. The left has already decried the move, which will make it harder for city residents to get where they need to go. Yet what further cuts loom as the Detroit Department of Transportation needs more money for fuel?

Of course, this is all good for us. It forces conservation. It means, or at least it is alleged to mean, that fewer people will die of the effects of carbon based fuels in the air. That's what the Democrats tell us, anyway. The same Democrats who, in 2006, blamed then President George Bush for high prices at the pump hurting Americans. The same Democrats who cried 'big oil' back then. Apparently big oil isn't such a demon with a Democratic President.

You see, Michigan, we're fine. Indeed, we're better off like this. So our food prices may go higher. We should eat less anyway. So we can't travel as we would like. Staycations are better anyway. So more of our disposable income will go into our gas tanks merely because, well, we need to get to work in order to pay for our gas. So the poor won't have the bus services they need. Let them eat cake.

That's what your President and his minions think of you. You're better off spending extra cash on gas. And vote for Barack Obama in November!

Well, remember all this when November 2012 rolls around anyway.