If you ever needed an example of the imbeciles we have forever ensconced in Congress, along comes John Kerry on cue. The Senator showed up on Fox & Friends Wednesday AM to tout his and Lieberman’s “American Power Act”… where he declared their “climate bill” would… get this.. funnel less US dollars to Iran for oil. (@ approx 50 sec in video below…)
“Well it’s really an energy/jobs bill, more than anything. It’s a bill that will increase America’s energy independence. For the first time in thirty years we can actually reduce our…our…our foreign oil dependency by about 50% and… and that’s very significant. We’re putting a hundred million dollars a day into Iran today.”
What a dipstick. Perhaps someone would like to fill the bill co-sponsor in on the fact that the US doesn’t import a single drop of it’s oil from Iran…. something that can be verified with a quick trip to the DOE website. It’s also embarrassing that the blond bimbo news hound didn’t know any better to nail him on that glaring error…. Woe to us and the quality of our media pundits these days.
But the Senator’s misrepresentation doesn’t end there.
Actually, the average American makes out very very well on this bill. uh, the lowest two … uh, the lowest 40% of American income earners will actually have more money in their pockets w2ith this bill. It improves their household income and.. uh… the amount of money they get to… to.. uh.. spend. For the rest of American, this is entirely, uh uh more than affordable. It’s a very very minimal cost because most of the revenue in this bill goes directly back to the American consumer. It goes back thru their energy bills at home where they’ll get a rebate, and it goes directly back thru a tax credit. After the transition phase, where we help certain companies to be able to be able to transition into this new.. uh.. energy economy, uh… the… the.. the about 98% of the money will go directly to the American consumer. And that means there will be really very very little, if any, cost increase to the American consumer.
Jobs? Since Sen. Kerry can’t be bothered to know from which nations the US purchases oil, he also probably can’t be in the know that Spain’s grand alternative energy experiment was found to lose 2.2 private sector job for every “green” energy job created in the short term. That’s the soft blow… the in-your-face jawbreaker was over five jobs lost over two decades.
But then, perhaps the Senator is beaming with pride over all the government jobs it will be “creating”…. As Investors Business Daily points out, this 1000 page draft “…creates some 60 new agencies and projects to eat up our tax dollars and buy support.”
But wait… there’s *more*, as the Senator sez in his cheesy FOX infomercial. What’s all this about “more money” to spend, and “very very little, if any” increased cost?
According to a leaked draft summary, there is “$7 billion annually to improve our transportation infrastructure and efficiency” to be paid for by a gas tax that is not called a tax but a “linked fee.” There is “$2 billion per year for researching and developing effective carbon capture and sequestration methods and devices.” There is even “a new multibillion-dollar revenue stream for agriculture through a domestic offset program.” Tilling the soil releases carbon dioxide, don’t you know?
Ironically, the draft summary acknowledges the bill will cause energy prices to necessarily skyrocket by promising to “provide assistance to those Americans who may be disproportionately affected by potential increases in energy prices.” How about lowering prices and creating jobs by increasing domestic supply?
So let me see if I get this straight. The American taxpayer is going to have pay a gas tax, described as a “linked fee”, which we’re supposed to get back paying for more expensive energy in a tax credit or rebate? And to boot, a whole bunch of Americans are going to be subsidized by the rest of us as well because they won’t be able to afford “very very little, if any, increase” in energy costs?
… wanna watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat, Rocky? Or how about a few more dollars from my posterior?
And what’s this “we”, Kemosabi, when Kerry says “we” will help *certain* companies transition. So the taxpayers will be on the hook for subsidizing the utility changeover even before these “rebates” and “credits” show up?
Exactly why on earth does this man, or his leadership, think they have a lick of credibility? This is the same bunch who has managed to quadruple the budget deficient in just a year’s time. Yep… from $20.91 bil in April 09 to $82.69 in April 2010. A month when the revenue rolls in, and is traditionally a surplus in 43 out of the last 56 years. Then, of course, there’s the less than impressive deficit savings from O’healthcare, deliberately misadvertised by this same group of math challenged elitists in order to slam that puppy thru.
Just how many times is the American public willing to fall for this BS spewing from the beltway of our nation’s Capital? How many more companies and households are we supposed to subsidize in the name of climate change and social justice?
Well… if you’re watching the rapid demise of the incumbent sweeping the country like I am, I’d say more and more are less willing to play the fool to the elected ones merely to be blindly herded off the financial cliff. And it’s about time.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
What ? did Kerry get tired of lying about his time in the ‘Nam ? That man is dumber than a bag of hammers …
This is mostly just “cap & trade” with some creative statistic tweaking and a name change to disguise it from an awakened and more wary public. Raising energy costs will result in gross inflation, loss in revenues, financial pain for anyone on a fixed budget, and more unemployment as loss of income due to taxation, and rising energy costs force a loss in consumer discretionary spending, while at the same time creating financial hardship on small business. Already strapped local and state governments will be driven even more into the red. This is the worst possible thing to do in a recession, and it may tip the economy over into a full blown depression.
But the eco-fanatic Democrat and far-left progressive doesn’t care how their schemes will affect people, all they care about is their “F%#&ing” agenda. They also clearly don’t mind heavy losses in November. The question is, “why?” Why are they further hurting chances for Democratic candidate votes? What else do they have up their sleeve? And how do they figure to come out ahead?
‘lil Lying johnnie ryan to the rescue! In three………… two……………………………………………………………………… one-and-three-quarters………………………………………………………………………………………………………
@ditto:
They are part of a greed and power cabal. Follow the money, see how many have invested in the ready to go carbon credit exchanges. That’s the only thing that makes sense of all this mess they desperately want to foist onto the citizens of this country.
For the record, the Dept. of Energy DOES include Iran on their chart. The footnotes show that Iran is included in the ‘Persian Gulf’ column. In 2008, the last year on the chart, we imported 2.4 million barrels per day from the Gulf – of which Iran is a part.
I’m pretty sure that doesn’t add up to $100,000,000 though.
I can’t even watch this clip, JK makes me sick. We had an opportunity to get that Statist out of office and JK and his party ruined it on purpose to pave the way for an even greater Statist. If there were a hell I’d ask JK to burn in it, but I’m not a man of faith so I’ll refrain from such an expression.
John Kerry’s greatest personal achievement has been romancing older wealthy women; he should concentrate on what he does best and leave the complicated issues to someone with better comprehension skills.
Should the senate pass this cap and tax bill by whatever name they call it today; this will be the straw that breaks the camels back. Wonder if they are prepared to handle the civil insurection that will follow? These pukes are pushing for a world govt run by the UN.
@Troika: yes, the chart linked is a little ambiguous – it leaves open the possibility that Iran’s stats somehow got rolled in to the Persian Gulf stats. However, there is further information available from the DOE that confirms the claim that we do not buy oil from them. See http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/Iran/Oil.html for a chart of Iran’s oil *exports* (with destination country… notice the USA is not on that list).
Kerry still has a point, though. Oil is fungible and the market is worldwide. If we import less, the price will go down and Iran will get less money as a result, even if we never buy oil directly from them. So, *if this bill could actually do what he claims*, Iran would indirectly get less of our money. The problem is that it won’t work.
I might add that the best way to drive down the price of oil would be for us to produce more of it.
I ummm ahh would just like to uh say that we umm voters here in uh Massachusetts just uh love to keep voting for umm John Kerry because um we ah don’t know any umm better.
imjustmusing:hi, and that was very funny, i just like intellectual humor. 🙄 bye
MATA:good post as usual; are they already on number 7th? which is” gain control of energy and food production?. it seems that the previous 6th,has been done with;control education purpose,endoctrination; select and train people to be elected in all public offices in all politicals partys; create society of victims,government dependency; ecetera.” 🙄
We’re all aware, from the 2004 campaign, that JK isn’t the brightest bulb in Congress (and that’s some tough competition): Somebody needs to tell him to stop proving it.
@Missy,
I understand what they are trying to do, and the money trail. What I don’t understand is how they think it will benefit the Democratic party, who will absolutely lose votes in November and future elections if they get this progressive elitist scheme passed. I don’t see any way that this will profit in Democratic voter support beyond the eco-nuts whose votes they can always count on.
Kerry didn’t say we’re buying a hundred million dollars worth of oil per day from Iran, folks.
That figure he’s thrown out is an entirely reasonable estimate of what we’re spending daily to defend our Persian Gulf oil supply.
Does anyone have a question concerning what threat we’re defending it from?
If so, read what Kerry said again. Then locate Iran and the Persian Gulf on a map.
Over the last three decades, Middle East oil security has cost the United States an estimated $7.3 trillion. That’s in addition to the price of the oil. That’s more than half of our entire national debt.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/04/study-middle-east-oil-scecurity-cost-us-78-trillion-over-last-three-decades/1
Greg, come on! Kerry was not implying anything, he was stating that we do buy our oil from Iran. Trust me, I live in the Great Gay, errrrrrrr Bay State, and remember when he was in Green Bay, he was at LAMBERT FIELD? Oh and if you are not familier with Manny Otiz, then you ain’t NO Red Sox fan. He’s a maroon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m pretty sure Senator Kerry is aware of the trade embargo. Importing Iranian oil into the U.S. has been banned since 1979.
Lurch’s intelligence is in inverse proportion to the elongation of his face.
MATA:hi, i took some exerps from the chart of john KERRY;and i like to put it for some who can explain it: enhanced soil sequestrationgiant program, international reserve allowance program, GAO report on utilisation of tax incentives, emissions allowance rebate program for elligibal for industrial section, and my last, presidential report on emissions allowance rebate. 🙄 bye thank’s
MATA: alow me to add 2 more; developping countrys deforestation program; and, natural resource climate change adaptation panel and climate change adaptation funds. thank 🙄
@Larry The Libertarian Guy: bbart does debunk your comments about the Iran/oil/purchase assertation. The US does not sanction Iran and then purchase oil directly. If some runs thru some “group” business deals as OPEC, that is out of our control. But in no way does the US subsidize Iranian oil, as Kerry implied in his interview about US dependence upon foreign oil. He was not, as anyone suggests (ahem, Greg), just deviating for a moment into another field of conversation (i.e. cost of wars in general). The man was absolutley clueless.. on the kind side. Another “kind side” was that he meant to say “Iraq”… but even that isn’t forgiveable as a political remark. Why wouldn’t we want to support Iraq, a fledgling ME Arab democracy, after all the blood and effort? The most likely was that he was attempting to deliberately play on anti-Iran sentiment to sell his bill to the US “commoners”.
But then, always amusing to see what the Heinz catsup gigalo (obviously, Teresa has low standards for such “help”) offers as reasoning for cap/tax legislation.
bbart: you, however, do some backtracking in half hearted excuses for Kerry (Greg’s comments are far too imbecile to address….). WTF? There must be someone on that side of the aisle more worthy of supporting, ya know. But were we to use your reasoning, any money I legitimately give to you (i.e. Saudi Arabia or OPEC) to purchase home grown tomatoes that you use to funnel to Pelosi (i.e. Iran or OPEC) makes me a Pelosi (IRAN) supporter.
… does not compute…. need more drugs and rock’n’roll to get to that point.
@Skookum, funny you mention that marriage of convenience. You have no idea how many originally composed snippy remarks I edited out before publishing about his useless status, and why hubbies of catsup heiresses should best be left to tending the pool cleaning.
@ilovebeeswarzone, mon ami… let me save you some valuable time. I was a Vietnam Navy wife, having a baby in a military hospital Jan 1971… a month before Kerry’s “baby killers” turncoat testimony before Congress. There is nothing you can tell me about Kerry that either makes him lower than the cockroach he is, nor elevates him to an acceptable insect status today. I’ve lived with this a’hole thru my generation already. The man needs to go get a job as a Walmart greeter… if they’ll take him as qualified. He has never, and never will, be acceptable as Congressional material IMHO.
Mata, when it comes to someones else’s carefully crafted article, you can always count on me to show up and fart at the dinner table.
@MataHarley, wtf are you talking about? I said I didn’t even watch the video.
So sorry, LTSG. I meant to refer to Troika37’s comment #5 just above yours.
They relate to a point that the left considers central to both national security and the long-term health of the national economy. The right won’t touch the topic with a 10 foot barge pole:
7.3 trillion U.S. dollars spent since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend our Middle East oil supply chain, in addition to the cost of the oil itself…
There’s a relationship between the extent of that ongoing hemorrhage of cash, the growth of the national debt, and the weakening of the U.S. economy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
One can either rightly understand Kerry’s statement in that context, or assume he’s made the totally preposterous assertion that we’re spending a hundred million dollars a day to purchase oil from Iran while we simultaneously push for stronger economic sanctions.
Greg, you attempt to spin some intelligence into Kerry’s remark, but his comment of sending $100s of millions a day to Iran has absolutely nothing to do with ME defense. It takes “the willing suspension of disbelief” to assume he speaks of paying foreign nations for our oil, then shifts to the cost of ME defense for one vague sentence, then swings back to the bill supposedly encouraging domestic production of alternative energy sources.
Either the man has no ability to be cogent in thought and on point statements, or he was making the totally preposterous statement you are desperate to defend. There is no “rightly understand” his comment in your context. He looks like an idiot either way. Might as well have been speaking of pruning roses, then insert a sentence on organic chicken feed before going back to the roses.
And INRE your attempt to diss our defense presence in that region of the world, it has to do with our national security… AND our national security. Yup… twice. The national security as that is where the global jihad movements bent on destroying us eminate and flourish – and the national security of our energy lifeblood for both a fuel and necessary source for production of our major exports. Would you not stand your defense of the family water supply during a drought for survival?
I have no more problems with a war for oil for US survival than I have for historic wars between tribes for land and water supplies. You fight for your survival and your base needs, or you perish.
BTW, I forgot to address this comment:
If “the left” were so all fired concerned with our national economy, they wouldn’t have spent decades refusing to build refineries, nuke power plants, and drillng for oil and natural gas. Nor would they be busy locking away our national resources for energy away into national parks.
Don’t be passing on that horse manure to this group. Go find an Obama voter to suck up to that malarky.
The billions drained annually from the U.S. economy to pay for Middle East oil have directly funded the rise of Islamic power, while our equally costly military presence to protect the supply has given enormous political energy to the cause of fundamentalist Islamic extremism.
Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy. That, of course, isn’t unusual in the case of an addiction. Nor is it uncommon to deny that the addiction is the actual problem.
Man o man, Greg. When you hop on that carousel of irrelevancy, you’re too darn dizzy from your own spin to get off, yes? So now our use of oil and our very presence in Saudi Arabia since the 1st Gulf War are to blame for terrorism? Gee… who does that resemble….. wait, don’t help. Oh yes. Bin Laden and Zawahiri.
So I guess the answer, in your infinite wisdom, is we totally acquiesce to their demands. We don’t import any oil from the ME, but only from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela etal (what, no comment about funding Chavez?). We also acquiesce to the jihad demands that all western influence is removed from the ME, and reduce our lifestyle and exports production to live within our limited oil import means. Which, of course, brings me back to the same argument you deliberately declined to address… I’ll repeat it for you.
If “the left” were so all fired concerned with our national economy, they wouldn’t have spent decades refusing to build refineries, nuke power plants, and drillng for oilm shale and natural gas, or attacking coal. Nor would they be busy locking away our national resources for energy away into national parks.
No. We are not “our own worst enemy”. Our worst enemy is talking points like yours that is a blame America first foundation.
Actually it has been documented pretty well that we don’t buy from oil “on the front end” but that our so called importers (Shell, BP, etc) may frequent stop with their tankers to ports in Iran…when they are not supposed to. So although you may not agree with they way Kerry states it…it happens…money is getting through or Iran…always has…always will until you give up that 3/4 ton Chevy!
I have a feeling if Jesus himself came and told you guys a fact that ran parallel with the left…you’d start hating on him too! The comments here are painfully predictable, not free thinkers in this room.
Aww. How cute. Libs have arriveneded.
Iran gets money ONLY because of my truck. Gotcha. Couldn’t be a weak-willed UN, the socialist hypocrites in Europe, coupled with your fellow-travelers in China or anything, could it?
Naaaa.
-And another with nothing to say, (let alone a “fact”). From a guy who couldn’t quote a thing Jesus ever said. Mental masturbation is an ugly thing Mike, but I’m sure you’re very satisfied with your brilliant counterpoint in support of Kerry’s posit.
Here, have a smoke.
rsf and Mike are one in the same, same ip’s….another lefty pulling another sockpuppet routine trying to tell us how close minded we are while he/she get their news from KOS and the Huffington Post.
Yeeeeaaaah.
… yup. And as usual, more than a few days late, and several brain cells short.
@MataHarley:
Mata, didn’t want to interrupt the flow in the Weekly discussion threads, so I searched for a place for this cute little Gore divorces ethanol article here. Kinda supports the above comment. 😉
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/ethanol-278591-corn-gore.html