August 4, 2008
On The Gas Price Front…
…Pelosi and Company, the Democrats who are presently in control of Congress, have chosen to leave the American people in the lurch by heading off on vacation without first taking the time to try and solve the current fuel kerfuffle (despite the frustrated objections of a whole passle of their Republican colleagues). Oh, yeah, they have dropped a few half derriered ideas along the lines of depleting the strategic oil reserve for a few seconds’ dubious relief, exhorting the oil companies to drill empty or nearly empty oil leases, and extracting more money from the coffers of the oil companies, completely ignoring the concept of said concerns passing these additional costs on to the consumer, thereby nullifying the added expense to themselves, but hey – who ever said today’s Democrat politicians believe they’re paid to think things through?
I’m reminded of the budget debacle during Bubba’s first term in the White House, when that President repeatedly vetoed the then Republican controlled Congress’ efforts to put forward their budget, and the Democrats all going home on Christmas vacation while the Republicans remained in Washington attempting to hammer out a budget that would meet with Clinton’s approval – kinda’ showed us which party is more dedicated to We, the People, didn’t it? The only thing that saved the day back then was Alan Greenspan’s threat to raise interest rates during an election year if he didn’t have a budget on his desk post-haste – on that note, Clinton, both abruptly and conveniently, misplaced his veto pen and the next budget went through.
So now they’ve demonstrated in no uncertain terms that, whether they hold the minority or the majority in Congress, they will walk out on us without so much as a how-do-you-do because their vacations are more important to them than the work for which we pay them (you know, the “work” for which they periodically vote themselves pay increases whether their performance warrants such raises or not).
We can hardly expect the leftpard to change its spots at this stage of the game, so…
What I find most irksome about this entire thing is that, despite the majority of even their own constituency demanding that we consider drilling our own oil in order to relieve the shortage that is generating the higher gas prices, Pelosi and her House retinue have refused to even debate the subject with the more sensible representatives on the right side of the aisle, let alone among themselves. It seems that the enviro-extremists have infinitely more say among the Democrats than the constituency at whose pleasure these critters serve. For the Democrats in Congress, politics trumps both the will and the well-being of the American people.
Of course, while preventing the oil companies from drilling where there is plenty of black gold, Alaska tea, they blame these same companies for high prices, completely ignoring the facts:
We live in a market based, supply and demand economy. When a commodity is in short supply, in oil’s case this being when the countries we buy from limit recovery quantities and our own domestic drilling is not what it could be (by government mandate, not by private sector choice – Hmmm, where is the Constitution in all this?), prices go up. This has nothing to do with the President, whom the Democrats naturally blame, him being Bush and all, and little to do with our own oil companies, whose prices adjust to the cost of a barrel of oil. If you’re running a candy store and the wholesale cost of a Nestle’s Crunch goes up .25, you’re going to raise your own price a quarter a bar, right?
Speaking of Nancy Pelosi and drilling, I would be amiss without linking to a great post on the subject over at Mike’s America.
Having said my piece on this as relates to today’s irresponsible, purely politically motivated Democrat majority in Congress, let’s go back several days to a Walter E. Williams (yep, the guy who’s become one of my favorite all time columnists over the last few months) column about the environmentalist moonbats’ influence on government that is totally on point and highly relevant to the topic at hand.
Let’s face it. The average individual American has little or no clout with Congress and can be safely ignored. But it’s a different story with groups such as Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy. When they speak, Congress listens. Unlike the average American, they are well organized, loaded with cash and well positioned to be a disobedient congressman’s worse nightmare. Their political and economic success has been a near disaster for our nation.
For several decades, environmentalists have managed to get Congress to keep most of our oil resources off-limits to exploration and drilling. They’ve managed to have the Congress enact onerous regulations that have made refinery construction impossible. Similarly, they’ve used the courts and Congress to completely stymie the construction of nuclear power plants. As a result, energy prices are at historical highs and threaten our economy and national security.
The Cap & Trade bit’s a little scary, wouldn’t you say?
http://hardastarboard.mu.nu/wp-trackback.php?p=906
August 5th, 2008 at 9:34 am
As a life long Republican, I have not had a whole heck of a lot to brag about in recent years. But this revolt by the GOP is a very proud moment for Republicans and a history making move as it has never happened before.
It is also to finally see the GOP, “grow a pair!” Pelosi is showing the American people that she not only does not care but her irresponsible move to not even allow drilling or any other type of energy legislation to make it to the floor is not sitting well with voters.
Most Democrats especially the leadership and their Presidential candidate are on the wrong side of this issue as more than seventy percent of Americans favor drilling including a 4 to 1 margin in California…shock , shock! This one issue alone will end Obama’s run for the White House and may very well see a GOP increase in the House with a possibility of a return to majority status in that Chamber.
The party that claims it cares for the people because of oil are showing thier true elitist and anti- American face and agenda!
Good to see you back!
August 5th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Environmental groups raise about $7 BILLION a year, a big chunk of which is spent paying off Democrats in Congress.
They will drive the rest of us to the poorhouse and they don’t care.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Ken –
Thanks.
Coupled with Congress’ already all time low (under the Democrats) approval rating, the Pelosi leadership re the gas price situation vs the Republican revolt on same will bring even the least informed American voters to their senses come November — if this doesn’t outright return the majority to the right side of the aisle where it belongs, it will, indeed, significantly increase the number of Republican representatives while decreasing the number of those other folks.
I agree also that this does not bide well for Obama, and will not do so even if he should decide to add the need to recover our own oil to his already considerable list of flip-flops. He’s already spoken his piece on the subject and voters will not forget.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Mike –
Well said!
If Republicans in Congress address this issue correctly, perhaps they can expose the dangers these environmentalist extremists pose both to our economy and our national security. That’s what’s actually needed.
The problem is that our side of the aisle has not been as forthcoming with right thinking POVs as the left has with their own, in large part thanks to the MSM and their “editing” of both news and the statements of Republican politicians.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am
And Pelosi wonders why Congress only has a 9% approval rating…but then again, maybe she doesn’t give a rat’s behind…
August 6th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Tom –
The Democrats are using their majority to further the agendas of their far left bankrollers, and the will and well being of the American people don’t even figure into the equation. Pelosi seems to thrive on stepping on the Constitution and the American flag with a muddy boot.
The silver lining here is that it’s possible, with the right kind of Republican narrative and actions, to expose to the voting public the true nature of today’s Democrats using their do-nothing “leadership” in the gas situation, which has a direct, unconcealable effect on all Americans, as the point issue.
The bottom line is that given her current course of action, there’s nothing Pelosi can say that will satisfy even those voters who usually succumb to her B.S. Gas prices stay high, the Democrats refuse to even discuss it.
Come on, November!
August 6th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Seth, you’re back!
The Congressional Dems’ taking off for their VACATIONS and leaving We The People in the lurch may damage them in November. I hope so!
Now, if a Republican majority had cut and run like the Dems just did, the story would be all over the front pages of every newspaper in the United States.
The Republicans should make hay of the Dems’ desertion in the final push to Election Day.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:10 am
AOW –
I have to make one more (brief) trip in a few days to inspect the completed project, other than that, I’m back in N.Y. (Yay!)
Perhaps the beginning of said hay has manifested itself:
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=33680
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has the power to shut off microphones and still video cameras, but that has not stopped House Republicans – and a steady stream of Capitol Hill visitors – from gathering in the House chamber for a third day on Tuesday for what seemed like a pep rally for energy independence.”
Now if only the Republicans in Congress would press it to the limit!
August 6th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
They will find out how much clout the people have if they don’t get their act together.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Shoprat –
In this instance, plenty of that clout will come from the Democrats’ own constituency. It sure would be nice to see Dem voters do to their party in November what disgusted Republican voters did to the GOP in November 2006 — abstain from voting at all, or vote for opposing candidates as a lesson to Comrade Pelosivitch and her retinue.
She is definitely screwing her own party on this one.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Seth, glad to see you’re back… does that mean your house is finished? Oh, oh yeah, I guess that would be me, wouldn’t it? Well, I hope your trip was immensely profitable (and personally satisfying)!
“Now if only the Republicans in Congress would press it to the limit!”
Therein lies the true problem with the GOP. For some strange unidentifiable reason, the GOP has extremely slippery fingers whenever they get the ball. That coupled to a new propensity to spend just like democrats…
Until the GOP regains sight of their foundational precepts and principles, they are going to find that voters who cannot discern them (GOP politicians) from their democratic counterparts are going to vote for the genuine article. Creating the largest government in history and spending ‘my money’ like a drunkin sailor (no offense to my Naval brethren) does not bode well with conservative voters. Standing firmly on solid principle and delivering, like the House under one Newt Gingrich, is what Joe Voter is looking for; not a democrat in republican clothing! (My humble apologies to sheep and wolves.)
The GOP seems to have lost steerage, and until they repair the problem, they will continue to founder at sea. A principled articulate GOP candidate should be able to stomp all over an elitist liberal in this next election cycle. So, where are all of our principled and articulate conservative candidates?
Again, welcome back. Glad to see you at that keyboard again!
August 9th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Old Soldier –
Thanks!
I’m still tied up with some aftermath stuff, such as ascertaining that a couple of my people who were seriously injured on the job are receiving the best medical attention, and will have to return to the site shortly to survey the completed project, but other than that, I am doing my best to get more time on-line.
I am hoping upon hope that some effort is made by GOP folks in Congress to return to the realm of conservative governance for which we elected them, and perhaps their protest on the floor (after Pelosi and her fellow Democrats slunk away on vacation) is at least a start.
While Republicans on the Hill, like Bush, have been anything but tenacious in communicating with the American people, I sincerely pray that with the opportunities presented by the Dems’ refusal to even discuss, let alone agree to an up-and-down vote on drilling to relieve the gas situation, the Republicans jump in with both feet and expose their portside colleagues for what they are; Election Day being about 2 1/2 months away, there is no longer much time for dilly-dallying.
I have my fingers crossed on that one!
August 9th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Wow! You are back and I just recently found out Old Soldier is back and now I see he got here before I did! Welcome back, Seth, even if I am a bit late I mean it. You’ve been missed.
The Republican Congressmen were still hanging in there last I heard and I hope they continue to do so. As for Pelosi, she seems more interested in trying to sell her book than in bringing the parties together as she said she was going to do when she was elected. Of course we didn’t believe her then and she proves every day that we were right.
August 9th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Seth, I, too, hope and pray that GOP politicians in general will make that sharp starboard turn; but pragmatism (with a smidgeon of cynicism) prevents me from holding my breath while waiting to see the compass move.
I believe the liberal’s strangle hold on the MSN outlets will minimalize any mileage that may have come from the Republican Congressmen’s display during this recess. I also believe, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that if Congress approved tapping our organic oil supplies that the world price of crude would plummet: producing a near immediate price-at-the-pump benefit. I am beyond fed up with the Democratic canned response of, “there will be no benefit for ten-plus years.” How long have we-the-people been telling Congress to open up our own oil fields? A lot longer than ten years, that’s for sure.
It is past time to tell the environazis to sit down and shout the hell up! We should continue to explore alternate energy sources; but to flatly refuse to tap our own resources and place all our energy need eggs in the “alternative energy” basket is inarguably stupid. Even if the be-all-end-all ‘renewable energy source’ were discovered tomorrow, it would take a lot longer than ten years to transition from petroleum to the new source. Our national dependence upon petro is undeniable: therefore, it is time our port side brethren stopped kowtowing to the environazis and begin to act like real American citizens who care about the rest of us American citizens.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Gayle –
Thanks. I will try to find more time to blog once I’ve made a final brief trip to inspect the fruits of my latest work project, though I am, on a dare, preparing to do some “undercover” social research for an upcoming post.
Pelosi is like all liberals, who ignore the truth wherever it is convenient and simply state whatever fits their Utopian fantasies of the moment, expecting that the public is, and will always be, stupid enough to believe whatever we are told.
Come November, we’ll see…
Old Soldier –
…but pragmatism (with a smidgeon of cynicism) prevents me from holding my breath while waiting to see the compass move.
I share that sentiment to the letter.
I attempted to get the point across to some liberal polster on the street the other day that development and deployment of alternative energy sources are all well and good, but nowhere near instantly available, and that in the meantime we need to rely on gas, employing an expression my grandmother used to use: “Don’t pour out the dirty water until after you’ve obtained the clean water”.
I also pointed out that instead of committing the existing volumes of time, energy and money to making noise and providing unconstructive obstructions, the environmentalists and their fellow travellers in Congress should be investing their assets in producing alternative energy sources. The earmark allocations for the aborted “Bridge to Nowhere” project alone would have financed quite a bit of research to that end.
As for our own representatives on the Hill, I cannot for the life of me fathom how they haven’t yet figured out why they are no longer in the majority and done something to change that. Pelosi and friends shouldn’t have to do all their campaigning for them!
November 7th, 2008 at 4:32 am
[...] Hard Astarboard ” Blog Archive ” On The Gas Price Front… [...]