Oil companies have pleaded with Obama to let them drill offshore and bring down prices, Obama refuses because he wants prices to rise

.
7/8/11, "Obama's Plan for $10 Gas," American Thinker, Jeffrey Folks
"For this President the goal all along has been $10 gas, and he is closer to achieving it than most observers realize. If Obama manages to negotiate $45 billion of new taxes on oil companies, those taxes will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Combine that with the spike in global oil prices that many predict and further "windfall" taxes on oil companies once they have been forced to raise prices at the pump, and you have $10 gas.

The best part for Obama is that he gets to pretend he had nothing to do with it. After all, he has been a leading critic of "greedy oil companies." He has supported one proposal after another for "punishing" Big Oil. Despite the fact that oil companies have been pleading with the Obama administration for the chance to drill offshore and bring down prices, they are the guilty ones, and

• he is somehow on the side of the struggling middle class."...

.