I call BS. Please provide information about farm programs that cap the cost of the products produced. Otherwise, your argument is foo.

Ah, by whose standard are we poor? Seriously, how many people are worried about their meals, and shelter? I would propose that the VAST majority of us are absolutely rich in this country.

Those that are looking at hard times, as well as those of us who are not, have ALL made a lot of foolish choices financially. Until we stop thinking of government as the solution, and depend instead upon self reliance, this will keep repeating. We only got to where we are so quickly because of the self reliance of the people who built our country.

There will always be people who are foolish, and there won’t be anything to solve that. Sending so much wealth to the state in hopes of a solution seems foolish after so many years of their failures.

I do wonder…what was Obama thinking taking the intelligent stand on a major issue in an election year? Has George W. Bush taught us nothing about American politics? Bad move Obama.

Why isn’t the trucking industry trying to streamline their rigs even more with smaller mirrors, fewer bangles, and so forth? Why aren’t they using a few of the European truckers are doing like the big fiberglass (?) buffers under the trailers to improve their aerodynamics and keep from running over small cars? Why aren’t they using the fiberglass rear end caps on the trailers that smooth the flow of the air around the back of the trailers?

We can artifically force the cost of fuel down through tax cuts and profit limits for the oil companies but ultimately the cost of fuel is going up whether we want it to or not and it is up to us to cope. Do I think the high prices are a scam? Yeah I do. Do I think the oil profits are ridiculous? Yeah, I do. But consumption is going to drive the cost up tomorrow and next month and next year so cuts mean nothing.

I think we ought to just let it rise. Better yet tack on some taxes to pay down the debt, fix the bridges and fund some transportation research.

Meanwhile ridicule the hell out of any CEOs making insame incomes to the detriment of their companies or workers. Ridicule the oil execs too. Put some of those golden parachutes and excess paychecks back into R&D and make America great again.

Hillary like Marc said and others have said is pandering to the lowest common denominator in America (least informed voters). We have become a nation of short sighted leaders and voters and industry leaders and it is here to bite us in the ass. Jimmy Carter caught alot of crap when I was a little kid from these same people. He tried to lead this country with some foresight but that unpopular.

I fear we are being increasingly ruled by the least common denominator. They vote the idiots into office, they drive poltical direction through surveys, the car companies build cars that best suit non-enthusiasts with short attention spans (not long life quality with clever features and styling, or fuel economy).

It’s like trying to get an eight year old to brush their teeth really well. He doesn’t see the point in it until a couple teeth fall out.

Right now his teeth are falling out and we’re all up in arms about it.

I’m really disappointed in our current leaders. They want to argue about STUPID stuff (abortion, gay marriage, lowing taxes by 18 cents, more money for schools without a plan of how to best spend it) when we’ve got some really serious issues in front of us.

Then there is the whole Left vs the Right when they are really about the same. It is the social and economic elite of this country running the show and they don’t really care which party is in office as long as things don’t change much, as long as they have time to manuver themselves for max profits and least tax liability. Want to go to war? Wait for a minute while I get my factories ready to build military equipment. Want to chance the face of American business? No, slow down – that would leave me out in the cold. let’s milk this cow a little longer. Maybe it would be a better statement to say let’s kick this dead horse a little longer.

Meanwhile there is this whole group of voters out there who follow the political soap opera every chance they can just waiting to pile on the “issue of the day”. I don’t mean like the debate we have here but the people who applaud 18 cent tax reductions. The news about what the candidates are wearing. What flubs they made the day before. Who they smiled at. Stupid stuff. Hollywood gossip type stuff. Black preacher who doesn’t know when to stop stuff.

These are the people who read the front page of the newspaper and call it good and done for the day. They don’t spend alot of time applying any real thought to the world’s issues b/c Dr. Phil or Judge Judy or Oprah is coming on.

People who buy, discard, buy, discard, etc. People whose outlook on life is mostly concerned with sales and the next new toy and not about some careful decisions that will serve them best in retirement.

These people WANT to be pandered to by the politicians. These people quit listening when there are real problems being discussed. They blank out when reality is shoved into their face.

These people are like an old roomate I had who each pay day would tell me all the new things he was going to buy – clothes with the right labels, gadgets, etc. He would go into a real depression when he ran out of money to spend each month and then lighten right back up when payday arrived again.

A real problem is how many of these people exist vs how many real critical thinkers are out there.

It’s not cool to worry about the future. Its not cool to fix your old car when you could buy a new one. Its not cool to actually discuss the issues of the moment in an intelligent way.

Back when I was a kid we would call these people the mall dwellers b/c that’s the only place these people went. Spend, spend, spend… Their whole life revolved around who was at the mall, what they bought and who is dating who. And sometimes the pool “scene”. Now I figure our generation has “matured” into the shiny new things crowd spending money they don’t have. A product of the 80s.

Thank you for letting me rant. Listened to the radio coming in this morning and 5 mins about Obama’s preacher friend and then Hillary’s 18 cent tax reduction just set me off on a bad mood right from the start.

We’ve got a pair of 5 year old wars in progress, gas has taken a 60 cent jump in 6 months, we seem to have no interest in existing alternative energy technology – waiting for it to appear at Wal-mart and to be told to buy it by the evening news! Meanwhile they sub-15 mpg crowd is crying a river over gas prices and yelling that they want our gov’t to fix the prices. Bring them back down to $2.50.

I am trying to patiently wait for the average IQ of America and the rest of the first world to rise. Hopefully the high prices will urge that education along.

If the worthless idiots in our government had our interests in mind, they would call a press conference TODAY in front of Wall Street and demand that this greed and madness stop. WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE???? The whole country will be driven into a recession because of the greed of a few people. Why hasn’t the Enron Loophole Bill been passed in Congress???? It’s not much, but at least it’s something.

The problem is:

1)Wall Street and the investors in the commodities markets.

2)The EPA for mandating 120 (what ever the number is) different fuel blends for every part of the country.

3)The insanity of Ethanol which the government and those NUTTY Environmental Fools forced on us. It costs more money and energy to make a gallon of that stuff than gasoline. The only way it’s even sort of viable is thru massive government subsides paid to midwest farmers.It produces LESS energy per unit than gasoline which means your mileage goes DOWN. AND IT MEANS USING FOOD TO PRODUCE FUEL!!!!! Look what is happening worldwide to food prices. If you want ethanol, make it from grass or garbage not food.

4) Those same Nature Nuts who stop any talk of drilling for new oil in this country. For example, there are large oil deposits in the Gulf of Mexico that we can not go after, BUT guess who is….Cuba with the help of our good buddies the Red Chinese and there’s not a peep of protest from our Environmental friends. It goes to show that they really are against America. It’s okay for Cuba to drill 40 miles off our coast, but not the US?

Everything is impacted with the cost of oil. I heat my house with oil, I need it to drive, the electric power company here(LIPA)uses oil to produce electricity and nearly everything you can think of is moved using oil (food to the store, clothing ,etc).

My message to our elected officals is:
DO SOMETHING TO HELP THE COUNTRY and do it now

Cold, dead hands, etc.

Because John P. Farmer can’t just up and sell the milk he’s produced from his own Cherry Tree Farms in Bumbuckville, IN. to someone all the way in Moscow, Russia. On the other hand, Greedy McOilman will just shrug and sell his oil to someone else more willing to pay the asking price. Result? Fuel shortage.

Of course, John P. Farmer won’t be able to deliver his product then because he either doesn’t have enough fuel in his trucks and equipment, or the distributors will charge out the anus just to hold onto profit margins. Either way, he’s going out of business.

Well then, Jonny (and the rest of you “poor” guys) should give up your WRXs and other such “exotic” cars and start driving an “A” Class car with a 1.1 liter motor and a manual transmission.

In Europe where gas prices have been out of wack with incomes there for a long time, cars like the WRX are considered exotic cars affordable only to the well-to-do. Unfortunately, this is a situation that is going to become a fast reality here in the States as well.

was that meant rhetorically?

actually the problem is not the evil gas companies who have a profit margin of a about 9.5% or even the tax (about 20% including federal, state & local taxes) it is that india & china + everybody else wants gas – Iraq is delivering dribbles the US government threatens war against Iran, the supply of the dollar increases monsterously, no new fineries are allowed.

but nothing should be done as if their is some sort of price ceiling or ‘cap’ imposed then Hello 1979 – long lines of cars at gas stations that actually had some, plenty were empty. better a high price than none at all.

JL’s got it right: gas may be cheap (on a relative scale given how much we pay for everything else) but we’re poor. Can’t say it any more succinctly (or better) than that.

If billary makes it to the white house it will be a party time for bill.
Chubby chix look out, bill is back!!!!!!!!

Short term billary and djoboma have the right idea on the oil companies but I don’t know how djobama will penalize their profits. That will be socialism!!!
billary’s forcing oil companies to r&d alt fuels is a better idea.

In our state 4 years ago the governor suspended gas tax for a month. The fuel prices declined after that month call it luck but it didn’t get him re-elected. :)

The government NEEDS to step in NOW. Prices for everything are going as im sure everyone here knows….but no one in washington seems to give a damn since they have enough for themselves.

I foresee some seriously big problems from truckers in the future if something doesnt change. then we are all f’ed

That’s the problem.

I’d agree with that, however energy prices in all forms are rising rapidly. THAT angers the average Joe and Jane who got used powering/heating/cooling/using oversized homes and SUV’s. Eventually, the market will adjust such behavior – brutally so to those who’ve made their lives dependent on cheap energy.

The reason your point works is because the bottom line is that gasoline is still cheap. Not cheap compared to the rest of the world, just CHEAP. It’s a value buy at $10 per gallon. Seriously. Look at all the crap we pay so much more for. Oil powers our world today. It’s GREAT stuff, and it’s CHEAP.

PCH,
Yes, the Hussein chanting is stupid. Shall we start on all the stupidity of the left wing nuts for balance, or just call it a day?

Likewise, our highway system is already a mess and the cost of asphalt is probably going up just as fast as the cost of fuel. The fuel tax is used to fund highway work. What is stupid is that the tax is a fixed number of pennies per gallon instead of a percentage. Even if the feds stopped collecting the gas tax, chances are that the oil companies and producers would end up soaking up those extra pennies per gallon.

Obama has real guts in saying this is a bad idea. Hillary and McCain are giving us pandering as usual.

Bottom line: Jimmy Carter was right. Read his 1977 speech for yourself:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_energy.html

If we had worked on the energy independence problem diligently for these past 30 years we would not be in this mess. But we didn’t, so we are. Just like cancer, the earlier you start treatment, the better.

One more thought: “During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai E Stevenson ‘Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!’ Stevenson called back ‘That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!’”

http://home.att.net/~jrhsc/ad.html

Let’s say Obama wins the nom. Rush, Hannity et al spend the next 4 months saying the name which shall not be spoken 5-6 times a day. November rolls around and it comes down to the wire. The name that shall not be spoken could actually be enough to turn just enough folks to the other side. I think most people would agree that this would be a new low in politics, but it is definitely within the realm of possibility.

I guarantee if McCain’s middle name was Adolf, Rush would not call him John Adolf McCain, not even once.

No, I didn’t vote for Ron Paul, and when did this become a political discussion group?.