I get amused by politicians blaming each other for high prices at the pump and vowing to fix everything as soon as they are elected. Is anyone actually ignorant enough to believe that crap?
Our petroleum dilemma began about 30 years ago when environmentalists and regulators flexed their muscles for the "good of the country." The result was no new refineries because the onerous regulations that had to be met made it impractical to construct them. No new oil fields opened up because of the environmental nitwits virtually shutting down the potential new fields in Alaska and forbidding drilling off shore as we sit by and watch other countries proceed to drill in the ocean floor.
Add to this political dilemma the fact that Ted Kennedy is instrumental in preventing wind farms off the coast that could replace some of the oil and coal usage, the environmentalists and regulators virtually preventing nuclear power plant construction for decades and preventing us from expanding our use of coal for power plants.
We have more coal reserves than the rest of the world has oil reserves.
The following is paraphrased from Charlie Reese, a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper:
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of 300 million are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
The speaker criticizes the president for creating deficits. The president merely proposes a budget, Congress accepts or rejects it.
The House of Representatives has sole responsibility for approving appropriations and taxes.
Five hundred forty-five people exercise the power of the federal government. It must follow that what exists is what they want to exist!
If the tax code is unfair, it is because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it is because they want in in the red.
If Marines are in Iraq, it is because they want them in Iraq.
They have an elite retirement plan (check it out) while we the the people have a failing social security system.
Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy, "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
These 545 people are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess.
