Posted on 07/04/2008 8:26:52 PM PDT by neverdem
You would think that this story is right out of science fiction. But the facts appear to be that the US Democrat-controlled Congress intends to destroy the Republican middle class with $11 per gallon gasoline.
The Democrats’ base -- wealthy white “limousine liberals”, and very poor people -- won’t be harmed, but the families who live in suburbia will be devastated.
The multi-millionaires like billionaire Senators John Kerry & Jay Rockefeller, financial speculator George Soros, filmmaker Michael Moore, and actors George Clooney & Meg Ryan can easily pay for their auto and private jet fuel. Poor people are forced to take public transit.
Here’s the reasoning behind the move.
The so-called “Global Oil Crisis” is an invention of the US liberal ruling class, which has successfully managed to export their disastrous ideas worldwide. Oil supply and demand has been on knife-edge balance for years. With the growth of the newly well off Chinese and Indian car-consuming populations, oil consumption has been rapidly increasing in the developing world even as it has been dropping in the US. No wonder India and China, with nearly half the world’s population, refused to sign on to the Kyoto “global warming” treaty.
Cheap energy -- and specifically oil -- is what made America the powerhouse of the 20th century. When gasoline was $1 a gallon in the US, it was $2-3 a gallon in high-tax Europe. Low US excise taxes enabled the country to grow and our vast middle class to prosper. Even today, the American consumer is paying $4-$5 per gallon of gasoline while his European counterpart is paying $10-12.
To meet this new energy shortfall, economists would assume that the rational market would increase the supply of oil and other oil-substitute energy supplies. But they would be wrong.
First, US the anti-nuclear lobby got the nuclear power industry banned from building new safe and clean fifth-generation power plants, abandoning the field to countries like France, which runs its super-fast trains on nuclear plants scattered throughout the country. In fact, fully 90% of France’s electricity comes from 59 non-polluting “carbon neutral” nuclear; they also recycle 99% of the spent fuel into new fuel using a breeder reactor at the La Hague chemical complex. We don’t do this either.
Next, the eco-greens got the drilling for new known American oil reserves in the barren wasteland of the Alaska ANWR’s near-coast sites, and along the east and west-coasts of the continental US, and in the Gulf of America. Now China & Venezuela are set to start drilling off the coast of Cuba - but not Exxon or Chevron. They’re forbidden by law.
Then, the construction of new modern and efficient US-based refineries has been halted for 40 years. So there is a perennial shortage of heating fuel in the winter and gasoline in the summer. One hurricane can take out 5% of the nation’s refining capacity for months. A 5% shortfall can now easily cause a $25 price increase.
Meanwhile, the nation’s electricity generators, primarily fuelled by coal-burning plants, were forced to convert to natural-gas, previously mostly used in industry, agriculture and home heating. This has, in turn, driven the price of natural gas through the roof, from $3 per thousand cubic feet to over $11.
Finally, the hundreds of older existing oil fields and pumping derricks were closed and not allowed to re-open due to “environmental concerns”. California alone has scores of older fields just waiting to be re-opened to increase the US oil supply. And these could be re-opened in a matter of months, not years.
But wait, there’s more.
To make matters worse, Congress then mandated using a toxic and polluting chemical -- ethanol -- inefficiently converted from corn, to help alleviate the oil shortage. Corn farmers promptly sold their commodity to the highest bidder, the ethanol refiners. The price of corn-based foods, like cornflakes - and sugar, chicken, milk, eggs and beef has now shot up.
In the process, a minor supply-demand problem has been artificially legislated into a full-blown crisis. The stock market’s response has been predictable: down, down, down.
The liberal solution, of course, is for Congress to raise taxes, increase the fuel excise tax, and force industry to adapt wacky “carbon credit” schemes to line the pockets of the rich liberals who are capitalizing on the global warming scare by selling newly-invented credits, like Al Gore’s new company is doing. Wrong. This will stress the mostly-Republican middle class even more.
So what is the solution? What’s right for America is wrong for the limousine liberals. It’s simple, really. Unleash the supply-side forces of economics.
Open up domestic oil drilling immediately. Turn back on the older wells now capped off. Fast-track new safe nuclear power plants. Stop creating global food shortages by killing off corn-based Ethanol production. Waive the punitive duty on cheap Brazilian sugar cane ethanol. Plant lots of domestic switchgrass for cleaner & cheaper ethanol manufacture. Begin a crash construction program of 50 new advanced nuclear power plants nationwide. Stop burning up natural gas to generate electricity. Build new clean coal-burning electric power plants nationwide (China is turning one per week for the next 5 years), and construct coal-to-oil conversion plants. The Germans were doing this in WWII. Alternative-energy sources like cheap 4th-generation solar panels will ramp up as their prices continue to fall.
In other words, return to the old policy of cheap domestic energy that has made America the powerhouse (pun intended) that it once was. The US will become oil-independent of our enemies whose treasuries are now overflowing with a flood of newly-printed dollars we’ve been using to pay our oil bills with, and the dollar regain its strength as the world’s reserve currency.
And the irony? All of this can be done now with results beginning in 90 days, and using new super-clean super-efficient and environmentally-friendly technology. The result: oil will drop down to well below $100 per barrel and the economy will once again boom. If France and China and Brazil can do it, why can’t America? Why not indeed?
Oil sells for $145 per barrel mostly because of artificially-created supply-side shortages. A small part of its price is also determined by speculators and uncertainty over a future cut-off of oil from the middle east that a war with Iran could cause. Assuming that Iran’s nuclear bomb program is destroyed by Israel this fall -- with or without America’s help - look for oil to spike up to $250-300. And 40 years of congressional bumbling will be the cause.
Mr. Easton teaches University economics and is passionate about technology and entrepreneurship.
Good luck cos we are tougher than that and we have been through this green and hippie stuff before in the 70s.........
they learned a lot, too. this time they might get lucky.
Maybe we should have a sit-in while they’re in session? :)
If they ever want to come home again, they’d better think deeply. The folks with the military training are the one they will be screwing with, and being old-fashioned, a lot of them have “don’t tread on me” tattoos, and so forth. “When in the course of human events...”
Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.
I'm afraid it's going to have to get a lot worse before the public get mad enough to actually do anything about this mess, It will probably be the 2010 elections before all hell will break lose if things don't change. I wish it will be this cycle but....
When in the course of human events.....
I drive no less than 500mi a week doing Hospice nursing. Gas prices have doubled since I started this job last year.... and I’m not sure how long I can continue. Our mileage compensation didn’t go up with the increase in gas prices. (we set our mileage reimbursement with the federal guidelines)
I'll believe when I see it. Until then, it's pure fantasy.
“If you bought it, a truck bought it” =
Trucking outfits and truckers are dropping like flies.
Grocery stores have 2 days of supplies. No trucks - empty shelves...
Other stores may take a couple weeks.
Then you have the demRats who attach taxes on top of it all - like the demRat ruled state of Maine...They've upped the tax on jet fuel to a point now, along with cost of the fuel, the outfit that supplies Bangor International Airport is threatening to pull out. No other outfit would take on the taxes........
We the People also need to start shouting and demanding NOW.
This one's up to us in the large part. We scream about a Nanny gov’t yet we sit here and natter, waiting for a handful of our reps in DC to do something about it - without any help from us.
Gov’t Of the People.....means WE need to be involved - in more than just gripping..
Let's get those emails and FAXES going to our reps NOW - fast and furious.
DRILL HERE. DRILL NOW.
to find your reps:
senators - windows to choose state or alfa
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
congresscritters
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml Best message; DRILL HERE. DRILL NOW. OR WE VOTE YOU OUT!
btt
Actually, this is exactly what Communism and Marxism are all about .. destroying the middle class.
When a liberals says he wants a tax cut for the middle class - HE’S LYING!!
Tyrants only want 2 classes - the rich and the poor - and I think you can figure out which class the Tyrant is in and which class he wants you to be in.
Drill now!
There is an element in the air of civil disturbance....you can smell it.
When we hit $5 a gallon for gas...numerous things start to occur. Your 16-year old’s car is put into the garage and sits there until he is 18. The cost of a pizza likely goes up. The cost of an airline ticket starts to become questionable. The necessity of renting a hotel room starts to dimenish. Money gets tight.
Around $6 a gallon...people start cutting back drastically. Independent truckers start to quit. Items get delivered to stores less frequently. You’ll notice some brands of tooth paste at your local Wal-Mart are only delivered every two months. The Grand Canyon loses 20 percent of its daily entry group. The ambulance that came out to pick up Grandma last week, wants a special fuel-fee of $40 on top of what they already charged.
Around $8 a gallon...people start talking about firing their senators, congressmen, governors and president when election time comes. They are disenchanted with the costs of living and reflect this in daily complaints. Even if ANWAR is opened and the Gulf of Mexico is fully utilized...the costs of gas only slows down....it does not stop. Some states will be in serious financial jeopardy now...like California. Your local roads that used to be repaved in the county...now fifty percent of what used to be accomplished...so you complain constantly about potholes and bad roads.
I don’t wish to paint a bleak picture....but we’ve basically run through all the good times with gas...and I don’t see nothing changing now but escalating to $8 and even $10 a gallon eventually. The nation’s stability at such a rate is seriously jeopardized and I doubt that any of us will be able to smile and just accept $8 a gallon.
mark
Correct.......hence the second-coming American Revolution. I don’t think everyone will go quietly...
Heard a talk show today that made the very astute observation that when the ‘worker bees’ of this nation decide to stay home because it costs more to go to work and hire baby sitters than it is worth it will definitely be the beginning of the end.
The truckers will probably be the first to go then it is downhill from there.
EVERYBODY had better wake up quick.
The ‘preaching to the choir’ folks keep bringing up how much the cost of gas has risen since the Libs took control of the House and Senate, but the MSM keeps quoting Pelosi & Co about how bad Bush, Cheney and Big Oil is screwing us.
Sign the petition here to drill for more oil.
That's just plain weird. Since when is the "middle class" as a rule "Republican?" That mush in the middle cannot be labelled.
I don't understand why more people are not signing the Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less petition At American Solutions for Winning the Future.
They're Obama supporters.
Anyone surprised about this knows squat about history and Marxism. A strong middle class is the enemy of state rule. So of course the dems want to destroy it by converting it into a state dependent lower class. From such arises their power. See the African American community for a prime example. The dems have successfully degraded most of that community to the point of utter dependence, and they get 90 plus percent of that vote. They are now working on the rest of America, and the “green” movement, domination of govt schools, and ownership of the MSM are their tools. Sadly, they are succeeding.
The November election is still far enough away to get the discontent messaged out to Washington, D.C.
We all need to write, call or fax representatives and senators to tell them that drilling needs to get started pronto. And the rhetoric that it doesn’t matter because it will be ten years before it gets to the consumer is hog wash. This is America and we could invent oil in ten years if we had to. Well, maybe not invent oil, but how about a substitute for oil. And I don’t mean something stupid like ethanol that takes a food crop away from hungry people.
What a boondoggle that was. Didn’t it occur to anybody that taking all that corn out of the grocery market would make a difference in the food bill? Yep — all the way from corn bread to steaks.
Anybody who thinks it would take ten years to get new oil to market doesn’t (1) have faith in good old American ingenuity and persistence, and (2) doesn’t give credit to all the chemists and engineers in the United States who could solve problems if the 110th Congress hadn’t tied their hands with a kadzillion places where oil can’t be drilled.
We absolutely have to lay this oil problem at the doorstep of the 110th Congress because the Democratic controlled congress has the power to authorize repealing the ban on offshore drilling.
Will someone go down to Brazil, please, and get some fresh ideas on how they became independent of oil.
“The so-called “Global Oil Crisis” is an invention of the US liberal ruling class, which has successfully managed to export their disastrous ideas worldwide. Oil supply and demand has been on knife-edge balance for years.”
The liberals are promoting the envio-terrorists agenda and refust to tap our own resources. Vote the bums out!
People are waking up but they don't really know what to do. It seems obvious to me and maybe to you but all they have heard for the last six year is how evil Bush is and the Republicans haven't help themselves at all by acting like Democrats. Memories are short when not reminded how the Dems said the were going to fix gas prices 2 years ago they blame the guy's they perceive to be in charge. Collectively we forget that the Democrats have been obstructing any reasonable energy solutions for more than 20 years, heck 30 years. That why I think it will be the 2010 elections before the s**t hits the fan electorly. I just hope things don't take a real ughly turn in the mean time.
IIRC the I.R.S. just raised those rates. Might want to have your employer check on that for you...
“I just hope things don’t take a real ughly turn in the mean time.”
I used to think that way. Now I think that the Tree of Liberty needs to be watered.
Vote the bums out!”
________________________
RE-ELECT NO ONE !
At least for the last half century, that has always been the case. The ultra-poor and the ultra-wealthy are Democrats. Working people, especially those with college-graduate-type professional occupations tend to be Republicans.
It is also true that the Democrats ultimate goal is to turn the US into a third-world country, with only two classes; the wealthy and the peasants. This is easy to see from all of their policies. You simply have to look past their PR/rhetoric, though. Because they are good at labeling things as other than they really are. For example; the Dems always want to tax the “Rich”, but the actual rich folks (like trust-fund Ted Kennedy) already have their wealth, and we don't have a wealth-tax (other than the estate tax, which the uber-wealthy manage to minimize). We have an income-tax, which hit hardest those who are successful, but still working and trying to accumulate wealth. In other words, the middle class.
Thanks for posting this powerful warning! These are the very people that have been ignorant and appethetic, saying:"I'm so busy trying to keep my head above water that I don't know and I don't care!"
It is now time for all of us to care very deeply!!!
Thanks neverdem.
Environmental support dips vs. economy - poll
(nearly three in four favor offshore drilling)
CNNMoney.com | July 3, 2008 | David Goldman
Posted on 07/04/2008 11:56:59 PM PDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041007/posts
“We can’t drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we’re living in the desert or we’re living in the tundra, and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world’s energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us. That’s not leadership.”
Senator Barack Obama
And yet the RATS seem destined to add to their majorities in both houses. Certainly you can blame the Republicans for ineptness on a Clouseau scale, but not to this extent. You’re talking mass suicide by the voters.
Because signing on-line petitions is a waste of time.
What kind of car are you driving that 50.5 and 58.5 cents per mile this year doesn't more than cover your gas costs?
We will see in November. Competitive Congressional Districts will be the proof in/of the pudding. These polls are deliberately inarticulate. They want to hear themselves talk. With the question, "Is the country going in the right or wrong direction," they add the Moveon.org crowd to the religious right, among others including libertarians. IMHO, it's the dumbest question ever asked. Most people live in gerrymandered Congressional Districts.
Look for more specific questions like drivers licenses for illegal aliens. It's not too popular.
Fourth thread? If this $300 thing happens the planet will be out of business. Population should be back to 1900 level in a couple of years.
Show me the other threads please. I get a kick from all of the "It's the end of the world" types.
It also flys in the face of Schumer's plan to woo the middle class.
Can’t find them. Search won’t pick them up, and with same title. Three were running at once yesterday.
Against private ciizens?
It's not just the gas.....it's the overall maintenance AND fuel. 500mi a week is the minimum I drive. Typical is around 750mi....because I have to be on call. I've had to put a set of tires on every 4 months... and have realignments twice a year. Things add up.
I drive a Ford Taurus and get 22mpg. I can't drive a smaller car and navigate all the rough country roads necessary to see my patients.
The Democrats are pure evil.
I think I see what you mean - 750 a week is $136 at $4 per gallon at 22mpg, and $378.75 in mileage reimbursement at the 50.5 cent rate that just was raised July 1, leaving $242.75 for maintenance per week, or about $971 per month.
An oil change every 3000 miles would be about once a month or so a, at $50 let’s say since you’d probably want Mobil 1 Synthetic to give the Ford engine a fighting chance, and a new set of tires is maybe $450-$500 if you went with be big-name brands, or perhaps half that if you went with the lesser-known guys like Kumho, Continental, Republic, Jetzon, etc. Alignments are $80 around here.
Of course, with a Taurus, you’d want to set some money aside for significant engine work every so often, suspension and CV joint repairs, etc.
If you’re spending more than your reimbursement, you should save your receipts and deduct the difference on your taxes as an unreimbursed employee business expense on the form 2106, I think it is.
If you can find a used VW Jetta diesel you get a combined MPG of about 40mpg, and highway of 45-50, so that’d be around $50 a week savings right off the top (since diesel’s more expensive per gallon).
A Honda Civic or Accord would get better mileage, and significantly reduce your maintenance costs compared to a Ford Taurus. A Civic Hybrid gets EPA 40mpg in local driving, 45mpg highway.
Good luck!
I was buying gas at 1.79 10 months ago....and I was actually getting ahead of expenses. As the car ages and racks up the miles...I'm having to pay out for more expensive repairs. (I'm praying the A/C will hold out through summer.)
I've eyeballed the Jetta... but don't like the Honda. The Jetta would cost me about $200 more a month than I'm paying now....and I'm not sure it would take these roads any better than the Taurus. Right now I have to stay status quo for a little longer. I won't get a penny of trade-in value with such high mileage on it. BTW....we're still being paid at the 48.5 rate according to my paycheck. Oh well......onward ho! Thanks for the advice!
My mileage doesn't start until I see my first patient .....or......if I have to go into the office first...I start mileage from there. I also don't get paid from the last patient I see... to home base. I've occasionally had to go see pts in a city 96 miles from home...stay for 3 hrs and go home again. Got paid nuttin. Crazy how that works....eh? :)
Ah yes, the darn commuting exception. Irritating, isn’t it?
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