Like Clinton, Schumer Has a Math Problem
May 22, 2008 Political
Congress has had the oil executives at the Capitol where they have been getting grilled because of the price of gasoline. The same politicians who have historically called for higher gasoline taxes to make the cost higher so we would drive less and save polar bears is beating up companies who make 8 to 10 cents on each gallon of gas. They do the work and state and federal government get more money out of the deal. Interestingly, Democrats who wanted more taxes on gas (thus raising the price) are now upset because constituents are raising hell. The members of Congress took their turns so let us see how it went.
A Congresswoman from Florida (I didn’t catch her name) was asking really stupid questions and asking the executives to prove they have not been manipulating prices. Two things, how do you prove a negative and are they not innocent until proven guilty which leads me to the next point. One Senator (maybe Ben Cardin) wants an investigation into price gouging or manipulation (or both). Since this has been looked at about 18 times and nothing has been found, perhaps there is something else at play here. That something is a global market for oil.
Members of Congress are too dense to understand that oil companies do not set the price of oil. Some of the rise is due to speculation bidding which is driving the price up. There is also a problem with a hugely increased demand from China and India which is driving the cost up (supply and demand). The other thing to remember is that Congress and the enviro-nuts refuse to let us drill our OWN oil. We have a bunch of it around. Some is off the Florida coast and some off the California coast and there is a lot of it in ANWR. We are not allowed to drill for it because Congress will not allow it. The wacko from Florida said that she did not want them there because tourists would have to look at them. Those tourists will all be from other countries because most other people will not be able to afford to go to Florida. Chuck Schumer gave us a bit of stupidity in all of this. The American Thinker reports that Chuckie said:
“If Saudi Arabia were to increase its production by 1 million barrels per day that translates to a reduction of 20 percent to 25 percent in the world price of crude oil, and crude oil prices could fall by more than $25 dollar per barrel from its current level of $126 per barrel. In turn, that would lower the price of gasoline between 13 percent and 17 percent, or by more than 62 cents off the expected summer regular-grade price – offering much needed relief to struggling families. “
When Congress argued against drilling at ANWR it was commonly agreed that we would get about a million barrels a day from there. The Democrats persuaded Bill Clinton to veto the ANWR bill and that is one reason we have higher prices. You see, if the Saudis producing a million more a day would reduce the price of gas by 62 cents then a million barrels a day from ANWR would do the same thing, or would it? Here is what Schumer said about a million barrels a day from ANWR (remember that is the figure that was believed would come from there and that is about what he is speaking):
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the Administration was “strangling” any attempts to make serious investments at alternative energy over the last seven years and that drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge would “take ten years and reduce the price of oil by a penny.” KCRG TV
So Chuckie says it would take ten years and reduce oil by 1 cent. How is there a 61 cent difference between a million barrels from Saudi Arabia and a million barrels from ANWR? If Bill Clinton had not vetoed the bill in 1995 the ten year issue would be a moot point because it has been thirteen. Chuckie made these statements within two weeks of each other. Did something in the dynamics of oil change in that time to make a 61 cent difference? The other thing to note is Chucky’s arrogance. He is basically holding Saudi Arabia up as the bad guys (they are for the most part) because they are not pumping a million more barrels a day to make things better for us. How arrogant of a man who will not allow drilling in his own country. Why should the Saudi’s or anyone else be willing to jump in and pump more for us when we are not willing to get and use our own resources.
It appears as if Schumer went to the same math classes that Hillary did. Neither of them seem able to count.
Then they got into the meat of the issue, money. Congress is upset that oil companies made billions of dollars. Ka-ching! Only problem is, the numbers are in raw dollars. The profit margin for oil companies was 10.8% for Exxon and around 8% for the others. Those are tight profit margins and not out of line with what we expect companies to make. Microsoft’s profit margin was 28.33% and even though theirs is almost three times higher, there are no calls to charge them a windfall profit tax. The company that John Kerry’s wife is associated with was nearly 9% and no one is hauling her before Congress. The thing that makes it look bad and what Congress plays up, is the raw numbers which are huge. These companies are very, very big and they make a lot of money because they are dealing with a lot of money. However, their profit margins are not excessive.
The large raw dollar figure is what has drawn the attention of Congress. They smell large amounts of money and they circle like sharks in bloody water. Money is like pheromones to them and it drives them into a frenzy with desire to obtain it.
Congress is full of idiots. They cause problems through their actions and then when there are problems they haul others before their august body and point fingers in every direction except inward. They caused the problems and their policies will continue those problems because things will only get worse. Their refusal to allow us to drill our own oil is hurting us and it is hurting the economy. If we could drill that oil and use it, maybe build a few refineries to make more gas, then prices would become more stable. If we kept that oil here then prices would certainly go down because we would not have to compete as heavily with China and India for the oil coming from the Middle East.
It was good to see oil companies finally fight back by pointing some of this out to those asking the questions. If Congress keeps getting its dander up with big oil they might have a few unexpected maintenance issues and shut down a few refineries for a while. That should make things miserable enough for Congress to pay attention.
The last thing to note is that Congress decries the amount of money big oil takes in but remains silent about the amount they [the government] takes from us. They have billions and billions coming in and they keep demanding more. They can’t seem to understand that we don’t want our taxes to go up any more than we do the price we pay for gas.
Tags: dishonesty, fuzzy logic, gas prices, new math, saudi, schumer
Democrats Ruin Economy, Hurt Stimulus, Increase Gas Prices
Apr 26, 2008 Political
The Democratic party, the party currently in control, is responsible for the economic slowdown and the problems facing long term recovery. When they ran in 2006 they promised to be more open and run a more ethical government. They also promised to fix every problem that faced this country. The Democrats told the American people that they had a plan to make fix it all. Nancy Pelosi put out a press release promising the American public that the Democrats had a plan to bring gasoline prices under control. It would appear as if her claims are as phony as the Biblical passage she constantly quotes.
Interestingly, many Americans are uninformed and unaware of what is going on so many of them will either not know this or will not understand it. What can we expect from people who follow a candidate who promises change but never says what change? Anyway, President Bush was discussing the redistribution of income plan [Congress calls it the economic stimulus plan] where “rebate” checks are sent to Americans in hopes they will spend them and put more cash flow into the economy. It is a stupid plan concocted in an election year in order to buy votes. Both parties want to be able to tell voters that they gave them money to help them out. Interestingly, this is an admission by the Democrats that allowing us to have more of our money is good for the economy but too many people will be too busy taking money they did not pay in and spending it on gasoline that was supposed to be cheap after Democrats took power.
President Bush, in talking about the checks, stated that they would allow people to pay for the rising cost of food and gas. Democrats jumped right on this and said that the economic stimulus checks were not meant to line the pockets of the oil companies. The Democrats blamed President Bush for this and said it was all his fault (it is an election year so they have to lie, once again, about being able to fix this problem) and that he needed to get OPEC to increase production. In other words, they are saying that the President needs to fix the problem that they caused and that they said they could fix if we elected them.
“It’s galling to think that taxpayers’ stimulus checks will be lining the pockets of OPEC. The sad truth is that the average American family will spend almost their entire stimulus check on higher gas prices this year,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.
OPEC is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
“Unless the administration gets OPEC to increase oil supply, American consumers are going to be in for a scorching summer of $4 gasoline with no relief in sight,” Schumer said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed that people “need this rebate to cope with the rising cost of gas and groceries.” She said that, while the rebates would help to get the economy moving, there was a need for a second stimulus package “and we have begun some conversation with the administration and Republicans.” My Way News
No Mr. Schumer, what is galling is that you Democrats promised Americans that you had a plan to fix the high price of gasoline when you didn’t. What is galling is that you lied about this to get elected and what is even more galling is that you now expect the President to fix the problem when your premise during the election was that he was incapable of fixing it so we needed to elect you to get it done. Mr. Schumer, if Americans will spend almost their entire check on gasoline it is because YOU failed to do what you promised.
Ms. Pelosi, we do not need another stimulus package where you take money from those of us who paid taxes and give it to those who did not. We do not need any more government interference in our lives. If you want to make things easier on Americans then cut our taxes. Reduce the amount of taxes we pay on our income, privatize social security (so we have all our OWN money when we retire or we can pass it to our heirs), and eliminate the gasoline tax. You Democrats promised to go after gouging. You people in Congress have absolutely nothing to do with the production of gas but you gouge consumers for 18.4 cents on every gallon of gas we use. Ms. Pelosi, if you want things to be better than live up to your campaign promise and execute your so-called plan to lower gas prices. Typically, you promised something you could not and had no intention of delivering on. I actually believe that a bunch of monkeys could do your jobs better.
For those of you who think that George Bush and the Republican party is to blame for the slowdown, keep in mind that when these folks were elected the economy was in great shape and the major focus of their campaigning was the war in Iraq (which they continue to cite as a reason for winning). The price of gasoline was $2.19 a gallon and they were crying about it being high and promising to fix the problem. Nearly two years later and we are in an economic downturn and gasoline is more expensive as is nearly everything. The economy went in the tank with the Democrats in charge so much so that they have hardly mentioned Iraq and they are trying to pin all this on Bush. Remember the Carter years and you will have an idea of what it will be like with a Democrat in the White House and a Democratically controlled Congress.
Who will they blame then? Just keep this in mind:
In just one year. Remember the election in 2006?
Thought you might like to read the following:
A little over one year ago:1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon and crude was $50 a barrel;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon and crude to $117 a barrel;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
This is what Democrats do to us. Vote for them at your own risk. I can’t see how the workers in this country will continue to fund a government that has an increasing appetite for our hard earned money. It will not take too much more of the income redistribution schemes (universal health care, Social Security, welfare) before people rebel. We did it once to expel the tyranny of government and we can do it again. I think it appropriate that I end with these words from the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. [emphasis mine]
Our government would do well to remember these words. We have a Second Amendment for a reason (which is why they keep trying to take our weapons)…
Tags: democrat lies, gas prices, income redistribution, lies, Pelosi, revolution, schumer, secret plan, taxes
Calling the Democrat’s Bluff
Apr 23, 2008 Political
Prior to the 2006 elections Nancy Pelosi put out a memo telling people that the Democrats had a plan to lower gasoline prices. Her memo discussed many items that Democrats, if placed in charge, would do to lower prices and ease the burden of rising fuel costs. Two years later the plan has yet to be revealed and the price of gas keeps rising. This year alone it has gone up an average of nearly 30 cents a month.
This plan must be like the mystical plan that John Kerry had for everything but refused to reveal. It is typical for the Democrats to claim they have plans but to be rather short on details. Barack Obama is no different. he talks of hope and change but other than promises to increase taxes and spending he lacks any specifics on how he intends to accomplish things and he does not state exactly what change he is looking to effect.
Back to the gas plan. The Republicans in Congress have sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi respectfully requesting that she release the plan she claimed the Democrats had oh so long ago. I doubt we will see a plan because none really ever existed. Democrats are big on making empty promises and hoping that people will not remember them. In the state of Maryland we have a governor who did this very thing in the run up to the 2006 elections. He promised that he would lower the electric rates that consumers in the state pay. The rates went up 75% and will increase again this summer (the new rates are justified and Democrats are the ones who caused the sudden increase).
I believe that this letter from the GOP is their way of politely saying to Speaker Pelosi, “Put up, or shut up.” If only it were that easy.
Tags: Congress, false claims, gas prices, gop, Pelosi, plans