The U.S. Senate would like to offer you a $100.00 bribe.
Although lawmakers in Washington prefer to be on the receiving end of the graft game, this time, they’d like to grease the palms of the American people. And what would they like in return? They’d like us to turn a blind eye to the raping of the environment in the form of “oil exploration” in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Oh, and by the way, would you please re-elect us in November.
In an amendment to an emergency spending bill, Senate Republicans Charles Grassley of Iowa, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania are proposing a $100 “rebate” to ease our pain at the gas pump. How kind of them. Never mind that the proposal has no real substantive measures to address the profiteering on the part of the oil companies, or any long term solutions to our dependence upon foreign oil. No, this is a bribery attempt, plain and simple.
And in terms of a bribe, it’s downright insulting. The fact is that for most Americans, $100 wouldn’t even come close to compensating for the extra money we’ve had to pay over the past 5 years to give oil companies record profits. The fact is, the price of gasoline has DOUBLED since Bush took office. That’s right, when dubya was sworn in, gas was at approx. $1.50 a gallon. Now it’s around $3.00 a gallon. At the rate of inflation over the past 5 years, it should be at about $1.87 a gallon right now. Based on that, I will pay an extra $587 just THIS year to keep gas in my relatively fuel efficient Jetta. So my question to Sen. Grassley & Co… Is this just the first installment??
Meanwhile, our illustrious President has offered nothing but lip service in regard to high energy prices. His “generous” offer to halt new deposits into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would by most accounts, do little or nothing to ease prices at the pump. And his proposed easing of environmental safeguards would be of great benefit to the oil companies, but offer no relief for Americans when filling up.
Unfortunately, we’re not hearing anything substantial from the left side of the aisle either. The Democrats, with a few exceptions, have not really offered a comprehensive solution to the nation’s energy woes. And those that have expressed anything innovative have been shoved aside by both parties, in favor of maintaining the status quo.
Perhaps the next Congress will have better luck at addressing this important national security issue. However, unless there is a MAJOR shakeup in the midterm elections for BOTH parties, I wouldn’t bet on it.
In an amendment to an emergency spending bill, Senate Republicans Charles Grassley of Iowa, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania are proposing a $100 “rebate” to ease our pain at the gas pump. How kind of them. Never mind that the proposal has no real substantive measures to address the profiteering on the part of the oil companies, or any long term solutions to our dependence upon foreign oil. No, this is a bribery attempt, plain and simple.
And in terms of a bribe, it’s downright insulting. The fact is that for most Americans, $100 wouldn’t even come close to compensating for the extra money we’ve had to pay over the past 5 years to give oil companies record profits. The fact is, the price of gasoline has DOUBLED since Bush took office. That’s right, when dubya was sworn in, gas was at approx. $1.50 a gallon. Now it’s around $3.00 a gallon. At the rate of inflation over the past 5 years, it should be at about $1.87 a gallon right now. Based on that, I will pay an extra $587 just THIS year to keep gas in my relatively fuel efficient Jetta. So my question to Sen. Grassley & Co… Is this just the first installment??
Meanwhile, our illustrious President has offered nothing but lip service in regard to high energy prices. His “generous” offer to halt new deposits into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would by most accounts, do little or nothing to ease prices at the pump. And his proposed easing of environmental safeguards would be of great benefit to the oil companies, but offer no relief for Americans when filling up.
Unfortunately, we’re not hearing anything substantial from the left side of the aisle either. The Democrats, with a few exceptions, have not really offered a comprehensive solution to the nation’s energy woes. And those that have expressed anything innovative have been shoved aside by both parties, in favor of maintaining the status quo.
Perhaps the next Congress will have better luck at addressing this important national security issue. However, unless there is a MAJOR shakeup in the midterm elections for BOTH parties, I wouldn’t bet on it.
posted by Marlipern @ 12:09 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Don't forget Bush's brilliant solution (or blaming, depending how you look at it) of building more refineries. Last week on NPR, they aired a rebuttal statement from someone in the oil refinery business (sorry I don't remember the source) who clarified that building a refinery is a 30 year and multi-billion dollar investment. And who knows what will happen to alternative energy sources in 10 years, much less 30? Not to mention the pollution, local eyesore, and declining propeerty values of surrounding neighborhoods. So I doubt anyone's too quick to build any new refineries.
Of course, if they had anticipated 30 years ago that someone from the oil industry would be president, they might have decided differently.
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