Nine months after seizing 35 percent of Venezuela's oil, Washington offers the country statehood, gas still at $4.15.

…(cont) On August 28, analysts told Congress to halt what they called a colonial push for the oil fields, before any deal was finished. A gift is not supposed to carry a 35 percent federal stake. The filing does not reconcile with the press release.

On September 1, the framing split in two: one column called it the biggest oil deal in a generation, the other called it theft at gunpoint. Both columns cited the same stake. The same week, diesel reached $5.85 a gallon, a record, and regular gasoline reached $4.15 over Labor Day, also a record. Two days after that, an administration official denied stealing Venezuela's oil, in the same appearance where he said Venezuela was now "forced to work" with the United States. A country that is forced to work with you is not a partner in a gift.

That is the balance sheet nine months in: a 35 percent stake, a record pump price, and a savings promise still dated "a year or two" out, with no itemized account of what it is measured against.

On Monday, the President added a new line item. He is no longer only discussing the oil beneath Venezuela. He is discussing Venezuela. "It will become a prosperous country," he said, "and who knows? Maybe someday soon, it will become a prosperous 51st state." The asset side of the ledger just grew by one government. The savings column, the one gas prices were supposed to land in, still reads the same number it read in September. The filing does not say when that number changes. It says who now gets counted among the assets.

Hon, that's not a reconciliation. That's an acquisition with a press tour.