I heard the President make a stunning assertion today claiming that gas prices were rising because of global demand and our “economic recovery”. He said this is the reason we must extend the payroll tax cut immediately. Now that extension and the measly $20.00 it attaches to your pay check every week is an entirely different argument all together. And in spite of the wheel barrel full of class warfare hate mail I’ll get on the matter I will move on.
Mr. President, gas prices are rising because of our dependence on foreign oil and your lack of will to do much of anything about it. Moreover, demand is actually down and supplies are up in February. Ya know, I seem to remember Nancy Pelosi chastising President Bush for $2.00 per gallon gas, yet your solution Sir, is an extra 20 spot for our troubles? Inflation is poised to rear its ugly head this summer unlike at any time in American history, and our leaders are flat-footed and clueless.
The nonchalant and frankly scary way this POTUS frames the critical issues of our time is truly unsettling and smacks of complete indifference and elitism. Even in the face of one of the most significant shovel ready energy projects to come down the pike in the last 20 years (Keystone Pipeline), President Obama has embraced the ideological wing of his party yet again by coming down on the side of the environmentalist nut jobs. Subsequently, as we look as his budget overall and the fact that most members of his own party won’t even vote for it, then we throw in the national debt, and unprecedented food and fuel prices coming to a city or town near you this summer, it is difficult to embrace our Presidents rosy assessment of our condition.
Truth “and” consequence are very often difficult medicine…
Fred – One thing you forgot to mention about the Keystone Pipeline: NONE of that oil is destined for the USA. It is for CHINA. So yes, some jobs would have been created by the pipeline, but the building of the structure would have been horrible for the environment AND we wouldn’t have been the recipients of the oil anyway!
p.s. I am one of those environmental nutjobs. When you call for respectful civil discourse and then start namecalling, it doesn’t serve you well.
Scott,
You are correct; some of that oil will be exported. But only after transportation, refining and delivery cost are extracted. Additionally, the long overdue construction of and modernizing of our refining systems within the continental U.S. that would take place, and is necessary for our nation to appropriately process the petroleum products we depend on, would create thousands of jobs. There have been comparative studies which show advancements in the building techniques of these types of pipelines and contradict some of the Rhetoric coming out of the environmentalist websites. Many of the fuel cost analysis on these same sites use flawed and factually inaccurate numbers as compared against our own federal reporting agencies. Moreover, any sales associated with this synthetic crude and bitumen would certainly carry a U.S. “surtax” and might go a bit to balancing what we sell to Beijing as opposed to what we buy. In our current condition, this is simply something that should have been looked at and not just summarily dismissed for purely ideological reasons.
Oh and Scott, I luv ya, but when I speak of civility, I am referring to politicians and I am not one. I am a pundit who receives email daily that would make you uneasy to say the least. I’ve been doing this for a while now my friend and I keep it far more civil than many of my critics, of this you can be sure… Be well…
I am pretty sure that the oil would not be refined in the USA. The pipeline would simply allow oil to make its way from Canada to awaiting tankers to head to China. You might want to take a look at the millions of dollars that your buddy Mitch McConnell will make if the pipeline were to be approved. A little bit of a conflict of interests.
And again…..everything I’ve read says that not one drop of that oil would be destined for the USA. ALL of it will be exported, NOT just some of it.
Again on the topic of civility, I do tire of the hypocrisy on both sides…..folks calling for respect and civility and in the same breath doing a bit of name calling.