Everyone remembers this interview of Obama in which he said that he doesn’t mind the high price of gas. In fact, its a good thing. He is just annoyed it rose so fast instead of gradually:
Well, his cohorts in the Senate agreed and adjourned this session without passing any bill that would deal with energy in a responsible manner. Specifically, ensuring we are not so dependent on others oil.
Hell — otherwise known as Congress — has officially frozen over. For the first time since the 1950s, Members will skip town today for the August recess without either chamber having passed a single appropriations bill. Then again, Democrats appear ready to sacrifice their whole agenda, even spending, rather than allow new domestic energy production.
Or even a mere debate about energy. The Democratic leadership is stonewalling any measure that might possibly relax the Congressional ban on offshore drilling. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid know that they would lose if a vote ever came to the floor, and they’re desperate to suppress an insurrection among those Democrats who are pragmatic about one of the top economic issues. Behind this whatever-it-takes obstructionism is an ideological commitment to high energy prices. The rulers of the Democratic Party want prices to keep rising. …
Normally, the spending hiatus would be a useful byproduct of Congressional bickering. But in this case the shutdown is malign neglect. Surging energy prices act like a huge tax increase on the economy, since energy demand is relatively fixed over the short term. The price spike is imposing genuine hardships on middle-income and working-class voters across the country.
The Democratic leadership isn’t oblivious to this man-at-the-pump reality. But Al Gore’s vision of the apocalyptic tides of climate change perfectly expresses their mentality: Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid see soaring prices as a public good — the mechanism that will force energy enlightenment on the U.S. If anything, they think the price of gas is too low. As recently as June, the Senate debated a multitrillion-dollar carbon tax-and-regulation scheme that was designed to boost energy costs. A new version will be a priority in the next Administration.
As the author of this piece says, the Democrats wanted these high prices. They believed that the soaring prices would help them in their quest to force nationalized energy on the “collective.” It backfired on them tho. The “collective” didn’t see it their way. The American people have seen the Democrats block new drilling over and over and over again and understand THAT is one of the main reasons we are in this mess. If they had allowed us to get our own oil 10-20 years ago we would never be so dependent on foreign stuff.
Ed Morrissey:
Reid and Pelosi didn’t block these votes because they’re winning; they blocked them because they’ve lost. The adjournment is a retreat, an attempt to get around the fact that they belong to shrinking minority of Cassandras who shriek about global warming as a cover for their true designs on energy. If Americans continue awakening from their slumber, it could be their last retreat.
Yes, its a retreat, but they are hoping Obama wins in November, which would mean they could push through their Marxist ideas unencumbered.
Ideas like this new plan from Obama:
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Friday announced an “Emergency Economic Plan” that would give families a stimulus check of $1,000 each, funded in part by what his presidential campaign calls “windfall profits from Big Oil.”
Details are in this six-page policy paper.
The first part of Obama’s plan is an emergency energy rebate ($500 to individual workers, $1,000 to families) as soon as this fall.
Taking from those who have it to give it to those who don’t for the common good. What political ideology does that sound like? Nevermind the fact that big oil makes only about a 8% profit on their product, much less then other industries in this country.
No, nevermind this. To the liberals big oil is the boogie man.
Either way the Democrats didn’t count on the backlash from the public. The American people understand that we need more of our own oil to fix this problem and the GOP needs to keep hammering on this subject until November.
See author page
A $1,000 per household giveway won’t do a damn thing to solve the energy problem nor will it help the many industries and especially small business people who depend on affordable energy to make a living.
It’s merely another in a long line of big spending promises Obama has made to buy off a segment of the voting public who don’t give a damn whether the economy goes into a tailspin or not, even though they would likely be impacted more than the $1,000 freebie.
Agreed. This for me is Obama’s pointless answer to McCain’s pointless Gas Tax Holiday. I’d like them both better if they’d dropped these ideas.
Politically, I guess it could work. When people heating with oil get that first bill in the fall, its going to be a pretty hard blow to the stomach.
People aren’t going to get a big oil bill unless they are on automatic fillup. They will not order oil and will attempt to survive the winter like animals in a cave. Food or heat nothing to fall back on unless you live where you can get and burn wood or coal. I have both but it’s nasty in the house. Got around a 30% increase in electricity rates last month and saw an application in the paper for an additional increase. It’s gonna get rough. Maybe we can burn Peeeloshi and Reid’s house down to stay warm for a day but the fire would probably stink as bad as they do.
I once did a project on the rates of CO2 in the atmosphere and our current way of living – with our deforestation and our use of vehicles and other things that require oil. Even if you force the people to change with high prices, 1. not only will it actually hurt those who can’t switch to the new and expensive resources, even with the $1,000 for every family promised that have to come from the big industries, but 2. also it will not work, because even if we changed our methods of living to the alternative sources and we changed fast, it would take decades before the CO2 in the atmosphere levels off and becomes what it once was before the whole scare on global warming came up. We’d have to switch at an unrealistic pace. It’s just impossible.
There has to be a long transition period, and it has to be slow. Forcing won’t do a thing.
*Research. Not project. My mistake. I ran out of time to edit the comment.
DUMP PELOSI AND REID …
I don’t care if this is supposed to be a “democratic year” … I hope the American people are so fed up with Pelosi and Reid ignoring the will of the people, like 76% who want offshore drilling, that in November we vote OUT every democratic member of congress who has supported Pelosi and Reid … as well as voting OUT Pelosi and Reid themselves.
I was working on a post about the do-nothing congress and googled it to find you. Very interesting blog, I will come back to read more