"We send a billion dollars to foreign countries every day because of our addiction to foreign oil."
Stand up for the facts!
Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.
I would like to contribute
Yes, a costly addiction
Senator Barack Obama may be well known for his verbal acumen, but it also turns out the Illinois Democrat is pretty good at math.
At a debate in Austin Thursday night, the Democratic frontrunner reiterated a statement he has used numerous times on the campaign trail: "We send a billion dollars to foreign countries every day because of our addiction to foreign oil."
To get that figure requires some simple multiplication: barrels of oil imports per day times the cost of barrel of oil equals how much U.S. spends daily purchasing oil abroad. So we dusted off our multiplication tables and checked Obama's math.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. imported 10,102,000 barrels per day of oil during the week ending Feb. 15. The average world price for a barrel of oil that same week was $89.91. That means energy firms spent $908 million on foreign oil daily in mid-February.
Featured Fact-check
Obama's campaign said they used $100 for the price of a barrel of oil, a record reached Feb. 19 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Sign up for PolitiFact texts
That number has since dropped a bit – to $98.86 as of Friday afternoon. Redoing the math, what we spend abroad comes awfully close to the billion-dollar figure Obama quotes. It's 998.2 million.
We'll allow him to round up. Obama gets a gold star in math, and we find his statement True.
Our Sources
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Imports & Exports
U.S. Energy Information Administration, World Crude Oil Prices
New York Mercantile Exchange, Crude Oil Prices
Browse the Truth-O-Meter
More by Dina Cappiello
Yes, a costly addiction
Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!
In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.