Post by whiplash on Jul 2, 2008 10:37:26 GMT -5
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqR0Ui0g3wI
This incredibly stupid comment by the Senate Majority Leader illustrates why we are in the economic mess that we are currently in.
According to a July 1 Gallup Poll Currently, 83% of Americans hold negative views about the economy, while 11% hold mixed views, and only 5% hold positive views.
All polls show that the price of gasoline is rising as a major concern of American voters.
What few seem to understand is that the two issues are inter-related? Energy costs have a huge impact on the American Economy. Every day we export $1.5 Billion to people who hate us. There is a transportation component in the cost of all goods that increases with the increased cost of fuel.
A. Where are we now?
For the month of June, GM sales fell 19 percent, Ford was down 28 percent, Chrysler dipped 36% and Toyota dropped 21 percent. Honda Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, which rely on cars for the bulk of their sales, each rose a paltry 1 percent.
The automakers' sales releases support analysts' projections that said companies with the largest vehicles would tumble the most. Consumers now paying a record $4 a gallon for fuel couldn't find enough gasoline-saving small cars on dealers' lots.
``The vehicles that people want are in short supply because the industry has turned on a dime in terms of demand and supply can't quite handle that,'' Alan Baum, director of automotive forecasting for Planning Edge in Birmingham, Michigan, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview. ``You'll continue to see a decline for the next several months.''
Since it takes several years to retool an automobile assembly plant to produce a different type of vehicle, sales declines will continue for a long time. We will see more plant closings like the GM plant in Janesville Wisconsin. Unemployment statistics are headed up.
We are on the verge of seeing the entire Airlines Industry in the US going bankrupt. Fuel costs are driving that industry into the gutter. Some airlines are asking their pilots to take 50% pay cuts.
What will our heating bills look like this coming winter?
The next major industry to be hit will be Recreation and Tourism as people won’t be able to afford the travel costs.
B. How we got to where we are
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqR0Ui0g3wI
The Republicans put a bill on Clinton’s desk in 1995 ready to be signed and explore and drill in ANWR . . . it was vetoed by Bill Clinton. It is now 13 years that this oil has been sitting in the ground. The environmental lobbyists pressured President Bill Clinton to veto ANWR legislation, citing risks to Caribou population and native Alaskan citizens. This, even though the footprint of a drilling operation in ANWR would be the proportional equivalent of a postage stamp on a football field.
In 1981 Congress imposed a ban on domestic offshore exploration and development. That ban has stood for 27 years.
Construction of our last nuclear power plant, the Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station, began in 1973. To date, 100 mines, 90 commercial power reactors, over 250 research reactors and a number of fuel cycle facilities, have been retired from operation. Some of these have been fully dismantled.
This insane so-called energy policy has gotten us to where we are today. It’s been led by eco-friendly Democrats. The current eco-fad is Climate Change. The Saint of Climate Change is Al Gore.
During this time frame our educational institutions, led and staffed by leftists, have brain washed an entire generation on the need “to save the Planet”.
We are where we are because of democrats.
C. What can we do about it?
We are so far in the hole that nothing can be done that will result in a quick fix. The best we can accomplished is the begin reversing the trend. Vote Republican!
In the current campaign, no issue exhibits such stark contrast between the parties as this one.
The Democrats want to continue on the same path. They oppose domestic production, they oppose nuclear power. Their “solutions” are the same tired policies of conservation and investigation and development of alternative technologies. They actually want higher gasoline prices because it forces conservation.
These policies are flawed.
Conservation is a sacrifice in quality of life. Conservation will reduce energy demand by a drop in the bucket compared to the increase in demand propelled by industrial development in Russia and India. Just how much could the US conserve to counteract the increase in world demand that we have no control over? It’s an altruistic concept that sounds good (We all must sacrifice to save the Planet); but it won’t make a dent in the worldwide supply/demand ratio.
The other Democratic mantra is alternative energy. They talk about wind, solar, hydro, and bio like these new planet-saving technologies being suppressed by the big oil companies. The fact is that these technologies are not new at all and they have not been developed simply because they are not economical compared to fossil fuels.
The other insanity being propagated by the Democrats is that we must punish the oil companies by increasing taxes on their obscene profits. How does this help reduce energy prices?
The Republicans have a much more realistic approach: expand domestic oil production to increase worldwide market supply, expand the use of clean coal, and start building nuclear power plants again.
These are referred to by Democrats as “failed policies of the past”. And, of course, we will kill the Planet by doing this. Nancy Pelosi said “we cannot drill our way out of this”. I respond “we cannot conserve our way out of this”. Barack Obama says “drilling now will not decrease gas prices tomorrow”. I ask, what Democratic strategies would decrease gas prices tomorrow. If one looks objectively at the current debate, one would see that the Democrats are making silly arguments.
There are enough sane Democrats in the House of Representatives to join Republicans to bring a bill forward to end the drilling ban and allow drilling in ANWR; but Ms. Pelosi, using her power as Speaker, is blocking any Bill coming to the Floor.
There are many other issues in the 2008 election campaign. The presidential candidates will begin to resemble one another more and more as Obama and McCain both move toward the center. But on the energy issue there will be no movement.
The Democrats will continue to live in Dreamland.
The Republicans will get us moving forward again in the Real World.
This incredibly stupid comment by the Senate Majority Leader illustrates why we are in the economic mess that we are currently in.
According to a July 1 Gallup Poll Currently, 83% of Americans hold negative views about the economy, while 11% hold mixed views, and only 5% hold positive views.
All polls show that the price of gasoline is rising as a major concern of American voters.
What few seem to understand is that the two issues are inter-related? Energy costs have a huge impact on the American Economy. Every day we export $1.5 Billion to people who hate us. There is a transportation component in the cost of all goods that increases with the increased cost of fuel.
A. Where are we now?
For the month of June, GM sales fell 19 percent, Ford was down 28 percent, Chrysler dipped 36% and Toyota dropped 21 percent. Honda Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, which rely on cars for the bulk of their sales, each rose a paltry 1 percent.
The automakers' sales releases support analysts' projections that said companies with the largest vehicles would tumble the most. Consumers now paying a record $4 a gallon for fuel couldn't find enough gasoline-saving small cars on dealers' lots.
``The vehicles that people want are in short supply because the industry has turned on a dime in terms of demand and supply can't quite handle that,'' Alan Baum, director of automotive forecasting for Planning Edge in Birmingham, Michigan, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview. ``You'll continue to see a decline for the next several months.''
Since it takes several years to retool an automobile assembly plant to produce a different type of vehicle, sales declines will continue for a long time. We will see more plant closings like the GM plant in Janesville Wisconsin. Unemployment statistics are headed up.
We are on the verge of seeing the entire Airlines Industry in the US going bankrupt. Fuel costs are driving that industry into the gutter. Some airlines are asking their pilots to take 50% pay cuts.
What will our heating bills look like this coming winter?
The next major industry to be hit will be Recreation and Tourism as people won’t be able to afford the travel costs.
B. How we got to where we are
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqR0Ui0g3wI
The Republicans put a bill on Clinton’s desk in 1995 ready to be signed and explore and drill in ANWR . . . it was vetoed by Bill Clinton. It is now 13 years that this oil has been sitting in the ground. The environmental lobbyists pressured President Bill Clinton to veto ANWR legislation, citing risks to Caribou population and native Alaskan citizens. This, even though the footprint of a drilling operation in ANWR would be the proportional equivalent of a postage stamp on a football field.
In 1981 Congress imposed a ban on domestic offshore exploration and development. That ban has stood for 27 years.
Construction of our last nuclear power plant, the Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station, began in 1973. To date, 100 mines, 90 commercial power reactors, over 250 research reactors and a number of fuel cycle facilities, have been retired from operation. Some of these have been fully dismantled.
This insane so-called energy policy has gotten us to where we are today. It’s been led by eco-friendly Democrats. The current eco-fad is Climate Change. The Saint of Climate Change is Al Gore.
During this time frame our educational institutions, led and staffed by leftists, have brain washed an entire generation on the need “to save the Planet”.
We are where we are because of democrats.
C. What can we do about it?
We are so far in the hole that nothing can be done that will result in a quick fix. The best we can accomplished is the begin reversing the trend. Vote Republican!
In the current campaign, no issue exhibits such stark contrast between the parties as this one.
The Democrats want to continue on the same path. They oppose domestic production, they oppose nuclear power. Their “solutions” are the same tired policies of conservation and investigation and development of alternative technologies. They actually want higher gasoline prices because it forces conservation.
These policies are flawed.
Conservation is a sacrifice in quality of life. Conservation will reduce energy demand by a drop in the bucket compared to the increase in demand propelled by industrial development in Russia and India. Just how much could the US conserve to counteract the increase in world demand that we have no control over? It’s an altruistic concept that sounds good (We all must sacrifice to save the Planet); but it won’t make a dent in the worldwide supply/demand ratio.
The other Democratic mantra is alternative energy. They talk about wind, solar, hydro, and bio like these new planet-saving technologies being suppressed by the big oil companies. The fact is that these technologies are not new at all and they have not been developed simply because they are not economical compared to fossil fuels.
The other insanity being propagated by the Democrats is that we must punish the oil companies by increasing taxes on their obscene profits. How does this help reduce energy prices?
The Republicans have a much more realistic approach: expand domestic oil production to increase worldwide market supply, expand the use of clean coal, and start building nuclear power plants again.
These are referred to by Democrats as “failed policies of the past”. And, of course, we will kill the Planet by doing this. Nancy Pelosi said “we cannot drill our way out of this”. I respond “we cannot conserve our way out of this”. Barack Obama says “drilling now will not decrease gas prices tomorrow”. I ask, what Democratic strategies would decrease gas prices tomorrow. If one looks objectively at the current debate, one would see that the Democrats are making silly arguments.
There are enough sane Democrats in the House of Representatives to join Republicans to bring a bill forward to end the drilling ban and allow drilling in ANWR; but Ms. Pelosi, using her power as Speaker, is blocking any Bill coming to the Floor.
There are many other issues in the 2008 election campaign. The presidential candidates will begin to resemble one another more and more as Obama and McCain both move toward the center. But on the energy issue there will be no movement.
The Democrats will continue to live in Dreamland.
The Republicans will get us moving forward again in the Real World.
