President Obama’s policies have been bad for everyone, except for the handful who have profited from cronyism and those who prefer to live on welfare, but they have especially devastated poor and middle-income Americans. With a simple chart, Philip Klein explains why this is true with respect to Obama’s “green energy” initiatives.

If you are in the top income quintile, energy costs account for only 4.3% of your income, on the average. So if energy (gasoline, heating oil and electricity, primarily) doubles in price, you’re not happy about it, but you probably don’t cancel your vacation. On the other hand, if you are in the bottom income quintile, energy accounts, on the average, for 24.4% of your income. If the cost of energy doubles, the result is real hardship: your family eats lower quality food, your children don’t get new clothes, you don’t go anywhere unless you have to.