So are the Republicans.

Eric-913730

So are the Republicans.

How dare you even suggest that Ted analyze his own party...don't you know that it would be too scary for him to even contemplate the idea that politicians in general and at all levels need to be held suspect?

Just let him root for his side like a zealous sports-fan and heckle the opposition, some people are beyond help.

Where have you been Seriously / Eric? I've been trying to hold down this fort without you. :(

Sorry, was busy debating with the mush-heads over on the Gov. Kristie section trying to defend religious ideology as a foundation of political discourse.

It's an invasion on all sides, much like a zombie horde, except these zombies have Cheeto-stains on their fingers and like to pretend that they are devoutly religious

Oh goody, now we will see Stimulus #4, or is that #5, to provide $$$ into the algae R&D and production.

Guess Mr. Obama's Wind, Geothermal, Solar panel, Battery, Electric Vehicle in Finland, etc., "Go Green" projects with infusion of taxpayer dollars didn't go so well.

Now, the theme from Mr. Obama is: "Drill baby, drill." Wait a minute, that is completely against his "Go Green" agenda and the Republicans got BLASTED for saying this for the past THREE YEARS. Ahhhh, another "toss the carrot" for a few votes.

Where is the outrage from the Liberals and the Conversationalists/Tree huggers ?

A record number of rigs are now drilling for oil in the U.S., the most in 25 years. SEARCH: 'Baker Hughes Rig Count Hits Record'

More rigs are now drilling in the deepwater Gulf than before the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010. SEARCH: 'More Oil Drilling Rigs In Gulf'

U.S. refineries are exporting about 2.8 million barrels of product per day to countries around the world. SEARCH: 'U.S Exports Refined Fuels'

The U.S. has about 1.5% to 2% of the world's known reserves of crude oil, this simply is not enough to effect the price of oil on the world market. SEARCH: 'Drill Baby Drill Won't Lower Gas Prices'

One million acres on the U.S./Mexico maritime border to open for new offshore drilling. SEARCH: 'US, Mexico Agree To Cooperate On Energy'

Seriously, does that make Santorum the Boomer? (Left4Dead reference if no one catches it).

getthefacts...you honestly think that these increases happened because of Obama? An increase in the oil drilling infrastructure takes years to implement. These plans and permits were approved prior to Obama. Simply because they occur after he's elected does not mean that they were implemented because of him. It's just timing....we have increased production in spite of Obama's policies

Here is a question you will never hear Rachel Madcow ask!

In 2010 you said Solyndra, a company that donated heavily to your political campaign, was “leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.” Today, Solyndra is bankrupt and the taxpayers lost over $500 million on loans that your administration knew might never be paid off when you made them. How do you respond to citizens who say this is evidence of corruption in your administration?

Now he wants to drill?!? WTF over

Funny how hypocritical and stupid Obama supporters are when they blamed Bush for high gas prices when he was in office, and now Obama gets a pass because now it is not the presidents fault. Well I hate to break it to you but the high price of gas is Obama's fault.

Crude oil prices are up, and that is the basis for the high cost of gas with no end in sight. Why is crude up, because of the weak dollar world wide. With our national debt now over 16 trillion and the fed printing money at a record pace the dollar will get weaker everyday.

The world see's this country as out of control financially, and we have a president on pace to add more to our national debt then every previous president combined should his policies continue for another five years. The weak dollar is also why gold prices are skyrocketing along with many other commodities.

Drill baby drill offers this country a better chance of energy stability then spend baby spend. Drill baby drill is actually a workable energy solution and not some pie in the sky fantasy that might never offer anything or is decades away. Obama has no energy policy, he has no fiscal restraint, and what we are seeing in the soaring price of gas and heating oil is only the beginning of the pain for consumers in this country. Inflation across the board is next, and yes it will be Obama's fault for failing to do anything but spend baby spend.

Welcome to the real world boys and girls! The fact is politicians in general are all liars and it makes no difference what their political affiliation is!

Congress lies, creates problems and then tries to sell the public that they are working hard to come up with solutions to the very same problems they created! Obama lies, is irresponsible or a total sociopath (you decide) when his policies fail and he blames, first G.W. Bush and now that the Bush horse has been ridden into the ground and killed by Obama, those evil Republicans in Congress! Don't beleive this? Consider this then: Obama's infamous jobs bill never made it out of the Democratically controlled Senate. So how is this the Republican's fault? Obama lies, or deliberately gives us the wrong information, when he tells us that we use more oil than we are capable of producing in this country! Don't believe this is true? Consider these simple facts then:

We have no oil/fuel shortage and this is especially true with the relatively mild winter we have had thus far.

The Big oil companies are still exporting refined oil/fuel to countries like China and it is having no impact on the supply that is available here in this country.

Fact is; Obama is using America to further "his" agenda. He couldn't care less what the average American citizen wants or needs, if he did we would not have had Obamacare rammed down our throats given the fact that they majority of "average Americans" were and still are against most if not all parts of that law. With each passing year that Obama is in office as our POTUS we are seeing more and more government intrusion into our lives, and ever increasing size of our federal government and a seemingly endless increase in the National Debt. Does this sound like a person who is truly concerned about the will of the average American or the continued existence of this country?

Remember this if nothing else: In 2008 Obama invited America to join him in the remaking of America. He never said it would be something we wanted, needed, would like or that would be of a benefit to this country and it's citizens in general, now did he?

If Congress (Democrats and Republicans alike) and Obama really wanted to do something about the rising price of fuel they would simply create a bill that would pose a significant export tax on fuel produced here in this country and at the same time make it illegal for the big oil companies to increase fuels costs here to simply make up for their lost profits. Then the big oil companies would stop playing their "global demand" game and be force to sell the fuel refined right here in this country. Won't work you say because they will simply cut production and lay off refinery workers to allow them to increase the cost of fuel? Not if the bill/law has any teeth in it as in criminal prosecutions being a real possibility

Bottom line is that both the POTUS and Congress have the ability to do something and they will not do so because "big" oil" donates a lot of money to their campaigns for election/re-election and they basically owns them.

There is, for all practical purposes, nothing government in general and the President in particular, can do in the short run to reduce gasoline prices, short of nationalizing the industry or implementing price controls. It’s idiotic to think otherwise. Last time I checked, we had a market economy. That means the government stays out of pricing of commodities. For thirty years we’ve been reducing subsidies to ag, steel, textiles, mining, etc. preferring to let the free market determine price and availability. Well, if you want to lower your gasoline bill in the short term, you’ll have to be willing to give up on the market economy. Are you willing to do that?

If you want to place blame, place it where it belongs, on us. We’re the ones that didn’t demand rational energy policy in the past. We’re the ones that let ourselves become dependent on foreign crude. We’re the one’s that could have demanded our leaders implement policies that favored energy consumers over the oil industry lobby.

Now the oil industry has grown into an uncontrollable monster, devouring middle class wealth, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. We saw it coming and failed to do anything about it.

A nasty little fact that MSNBC is loath to report is that the gas price debacle is due to the oil companies exporting gas and oil from the US to China. Why? Because they can kill two birds with one stone. They get a good price from China and at the same time artificially create a slight shortage here thus keeping upward pressure on prices.

As reported, we had a relatively mild winter and gas was plentiful until the oil companies began exporting huge amounts abroad. When confronted with this, the oil spokesman complete with a perpetual crocodile smile on this face responded with the usual scripted rhetoric claiming oil pricing is subject to the global market forces and it's all very complicated. No matter the question, he proceeded to repeat this rhetoric over and over again until everyone was totally exasperated.

Just like price spikes in previous years, the oil companies are once more testing the waters to see just how much they can increase prices before the pressure causes them to back off. Each time the prices drop but never to the previous levels. They are slowly conditioning us to consider these higher prices to be acceptable. After all, who wouldn't be happy with $4 a gallon gas after experiencing $6 a gallon?

Obama's speech essentially said he's going to set up another committee to study the problem. This means he has no clue about what to do which is normal for him.

On April 2, 2009 Rep. Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1866, the "Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007," with ten original co-sponsors: Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO), Barney Frank (D-MA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Tom McClintock (R-CA), George Miller (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Pete Stark (D-CA), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).

You would think that if the Govt. TRULY cared about the environment, and reducing dependency on foreign oil, that it would be supporting this bill. This alternative energy program could be implemented in MONTHS not YEARS. Instead of Drill Baby Drill...Plant Baby Plant!

The more you know.....Industrial hemp is not meant for smoking. Nobody can be psychologically affected by consuming industrial hemp. It is actually known as anti-marijuana because it has little to no THC. Hemp is the name of the soft, durable fibre that is cultivated from plants of the Cannabis genus, cultivated for industrial and commercial (non-drug) use.

In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food, fuel, and medical purposes. For a crop, hemp is very environmentally friendly as it requires few pesticides and no herbicides.

Biofuels such as biodiesel and alcohol fuel can be made from the oils in hemp seeds and stalks, and the fermentation of the plant as a whole.

Under the current national drug control policy, industrial hemp can be imported, but it can't be grown by American farmers. Some states have defied Federal law and made the cultivation of industrial hemp legal. These states — North Dakota, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, West Virginia, Vermont, and Oregon — have not yet begun to grow hemp because of resistance from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The ban on Industrial Hemp results in high prices, outsourced jobs, and lost opportunities for American manufacturing and American Farmers.

It is no secret that Big Business has great influence over Washington. Hemp paper threatened DuPont's monopoly on the necessary chemicals for manufacturing paper from trees and hemp fiber cloth would compete with Nylon, a synthetic fibre, that was patented in 1938, the year hemp was made illegal. It is often asserted in pro-cannabis publications that DuPont actively supported the criminalization of the production of hemp in the US in 1937 through private and government intermediates, and alleged that this was done to eliminate hemp as a source of fiber—one of DuPont's biggest markets at the time.

The political elite and special interest groups tell us we are addicted to oil. It is time for Americans to tell them we don't have to be.

There is incongruity for the President to purchase $10 Billion of GM stock for $25 Billion in tax dollars, a company pumping out thousands of gas guzzling SUVs, and then preach to us that we should 'reduce gas consumption'. Truly Obama is the Bee Ess President.

Oh, have you heard the President preach about the cost of the electricity to run a Volt, that is if your Volt hasn't caught on fire already on its own just sitting there. Of course you haven't, and it's clear why, it's way more than the cost of gas. And, is the President talking about the $9000 battery replacement down the road? Or would he propose dumping all the $40,000 electric cars into a landfill in 5 years? No. The President would not tell these realities.

By the way, when the government subsidy (about half of the cost of a Volt) goes away, watch the few Volt customers go away too.

Now the President wants to save the world with algae a subject I'm sure Obama is the definitive expert on.

If the President would have been drilling for the past 3 years wouldn't the price of gas still be $1.87 a gallon?

Clean your gazing ball, it needs it..........LOL. Remember Bush and "switchgrass" as a alternate energy in his SOTU address ? You obviously do not understand energy economics, so be it.........LOL......ramble on.

Scott, no because OPEC would lessen their production to level out prices. We do not consume enough of our own oil to make a difference in the price of gas in America. 72% of our gas is still foreign, we can only refine about 28% of what we produce.

I think that the President means well when he says what he says. I believe that he sincerely hopes that things will change even though his plans do not seem to be working very well. He needs to work on keeping the promises that he has already made rather than making new ones. For example, without conditions, he promised that the 2012 federal deficit would not exceed 229.27 billion dollars. I want to know how he is going to pull it off.

The President needs to be reminded of some words of wisdom that were spoken back in March of 2006. The words were as true then as they are today.

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America 's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, "the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."
~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006

Playing off the movie “The Artist,” which won Best Picture at The Oscars
Sunday, Raising Red Action Fund produced a parody trailer for “The Con Artist,”
a movie starring President Barack Obama and nominated for “Worst Picture.”

http://youtu.be/dOpwCQsMbCE

For anyone to think for one minute that supporters of Obama care about his endless trail of hypocrisy, I have some land on the moon just for you. We have a Teflon president, nothing is ever going to stick to him. At least not in the near future, but long term historians will be very harsh on Obama and all of congress for that matter. It will be well deserved.

Washington creates problems, and they solve none. Obama's first term has been a magnanimous failure, but none of his supporters care because to them he is the only one promising handouts and whether deserved or not they want some. Of course when those handouts turn into IOU's and then are just plain forgotten, maybe some of them will go huh.

You can bet the future generations stuck with the tab from the most fiscally irresponsible president in our nations history will have better adjectives to describe their feelings on the matter. Obama blames everyone but himself for everything. But right now with the fed printing money at a record pace, the country spending and borrowing at a record pace, the pathetically weak dollar has more to do with the price of crude then the speculators.

http://www.aspousa.org/index.php/peak-oil-reference/peak-oil-data/us-oil-production/

For those who can not read this graph from the United States Dept. of Energy. Shows we have had declining oil production from 1970, because it is a declining resource!!! We have used up our reserve in the last 100 years, no politics intended.......

http://greenecon.net/%E2%80%9Ddrill-baby-drill%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-no-invest-into-energy-technology/energy_economics.html

This chart shows oil rigs in operation and oil production.....Get it in your head ,,,,,,,We can not "Drill, baby ,drill," there is not much left of "sweet crude oil", just oil sand and oil shale from fracking.

Those who want to ignore the fact of reduced production for 40 years, can vote Republican as far as I am conserned........

Go ahead and be stupid, and listen to the REpuglicans, the truth will not matter.

Waco Tribune Herald, Waco , TX , Nov 18, 2011

This was written by a 21 yr old female who gets it. It's her future she's worried about and this
is how she feels about the social welfare big government state that she's being forced to live in!

These solutions are just common sense in her opinion.

PUT ME IN CHARGE. .....

Put me in charge of food stamps.

I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of
rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid.

The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. If you want to reproduce and use drugs, alcohol, or smoke, then gets a job.

Put me in charge of government housing.

Ever live in a military barracks?

You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair.

Your home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessionswill be inventoried. If you want a
plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for
you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the "common good.."

Before you write that I've violated someone’s rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If
you want our money, accept our rules.

Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self- esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self-esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from
their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov't subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov't welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

And tear what we have down, is the summary of you comment. So rightous (LOL) of you, but you have forgotten the charity that you believe will sprout from the general public during these times. Have any facts? Or just hearsay? LOL..................Is this preached in the pulpit, or in the back-alley? Do the Chamber of Commerce, or any right -wing moderates speak your tale? Perhaps they do in your parts.

OBAMA: To hell with the American people, we're going to do ths my way!

By: Alex Guillen, Politico

February 28, 2012 06:37 PM EST

The Energy Department isn’t working to lower gasoline prices directly,
Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker scolded him for
his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as
in Europe.

Instead, DOE is working to promote alternatives such as biofuels and electric
vehicles, Chu told House appropriators during a hearing on DOE’s budget.

But Americans need relief now, Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss.) said — not high
gasoline prices that could eventually push them to alternatives.

“I can’t look at motivations. I have to look at results. And under this
administration the price of gasoline has doubled,” Nunnelee told Chu.

“The people of north Mississippi can’t be here, so I have to be here and be
their voice for them,” Nunnelee added. “I have to tell you that $8 a gallon
gasoline makes them afraid. It’s a cruel tax on the people of north Mississippi
as they try to go back and forth to work. It’s a cloud hanging over economic
development and job creation.”

Chu expressed sympathy but said his department is working to lower energy
prices in the long term.

“We agree there is great suffering when the price of gasoline increases in
the United States, and so we are very concerned about this,” said Chu, speaking
to the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee. “As I have repeatedly
said, in the Department of Energy, what we’re trying to do is diversify our
energy supply for transportation so that we have cost-effective means.”

Chu specifically cited a reported breakthrough announced Monday by Envia
Systems, which received funding from DOE’s ARPA-E, that could help slash the
price of electric vehicle batteries.

He also touted natural gas as “great” and said DOE is researching how to
reduce the cost of compressed natural gas tanks for vehicles.

High gasoline prices will make research into such alternatives more urgent,
Chu said.

“But is the overall goal to get our price” of gasoline down, asked
Nunnelee.

“No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and
strengthen our economy,” Chu replied. “We think that if you consider all these
energy policies, including energy efficiency, we think that we can go a long way
to becoming less dependent on oil and [diversifying] our supply and we’ll help
the American economy and the American consumers.”

Our oil production in the U.S. is decreasing for 40 years. The production per oil well is less for the same amount of years.....40. We have a non-renewable energy source, that is depleted. It cost us more each year to find less oil. We have sold our reserves for the past 100 years for a profit, and have to compete with cheap O.P.E.C. oil as we do not have the reserve in oil to meet our demand. Recent ethanol, and renewable energy advances along with our economy has lessened our demand.

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=us&v=88

http://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/oil_imports.html

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=A

http://205.254.135.24/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=8_NA_8O0_NUS_C&f=A

http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=us&product=oil&graph=production

No matter how many rigs we have going, production is down from 40 years ago......... rising prices will expand our oil production................http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/05/peak_oil_in_ame.html

http://www.factcheck.org/2011/03/is-obama-to-blame-for-4-gasoline/

We have a decreasing resource in oil, we must get used to it.......... and we as a country have less control of oil prices than most expect.................http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm

Here is some "change you can believe in" under Obama:

Gas prices when Bush left office: Appx: $1.86 (National average per "Gas Buddy" website)

Gas price today, under Obama: $3.72

Do you all like that change?

________

Read this article from Thomas Sowell before you even consider to vote this November. Forward it to all that you know:

____

Many people are looking to the many primary elections on March 6th -- "Super Tuesday" -- to clarify where this year's Republican nomination campaign is headed.

It may clarify far more than that, including the future of this nation and of Western civilization. If a clear winner with a commanding lead emerges, the question then becomes whether that candidate is someone who is likely to defeat Barack Obama.

If not, then the fate of America -- and of Western nations, including Israel -- will be left in the hands of a man with a lifelong hostility to Western values and Western interests.

President Obama is such a genial man that many people, across the ideological space, cannot see him as a danger.

For every hundred people who can see his geniality, probably only a handful see the grave danger his warped policies and ruthless tactics pose to a whole way of life that has given generation after generation of Americans unprecedented freedom and prosperity.

The election next November will not be just another election, and the stakes add up to far more than the sum of the individual issues. Moreover, if reelected and facing no future election, whatever political constraints may have limited how far Obama would push his radical agenda will be gone.

He would have the closest thing to a blank check. Nothing could stop him but impeachment or a military coup, and both are very unlikely. A genial corrupter is all the more dangerous for being genial.

More double talk from Obama. Every macro economic student understands the effect of supply and demand. Obama stated that oil prices are not affected by supply, but only demand. Mr. Obama you got an F in Econ 101.

Wrong, he said WE can not dictate price as production of most of oil is in foreign hands,,,,,,,,what do you want us to do, socialise foreign oil production? Conservatives are all for socializing our foreign suppliers for our needs , but can't stand it in their own home town.

Oil is sold on the futures market, well before it ever gets refined and ends up at the pump as gas. Based on what oil speculators are saying will be paid for oil in the future, it's elementary to say well ahead of time that gas prices will increase.

Grumpy

Do you have an IRA, 401k, or hold any Mutual funds? Take a look and see if there are any oil companies in those investments and get back to us.

Oil companies are in business to maximize profits. It's not nearly as simple as supply and demand. When speculators bet on the price going up, the oil companies raise the price.

The only good news is, prices wouldn't be going up if we were still in a recession. The main reason prices went down in 2008 was because nobody could afford gas.

Clotho,

The only good news is, prices wouldn't be going up if we were still in a recession. The main reason prices went down in 2008 was because nobody could afford gas.

It is a bait and switch, yes prices are going up and so is the stock market. I will not argue that, but hear me out. Hasn't the government taken on an addition $5Trillion dollars of new dept? and raised the dept ceiling to $19Trillion. There is record deficit spending that is %100 of GPD. The global market has been flooded by US $$$. Sure you can say we "appear to be out of the recession" but now it is just another gold plated turd on a global scale. Deflation is good for the people but bad for the government/power brokers.

There is record deficit spending that is %100 of GPD.

No. The debt is at 100% GDP.

Spending as a % of GDP is actually going down.

Get your facts right.

Ruken,

Really? All you can do is change my "of" to "at" and all of a sudden your the genius hero? Numbers don't lie, you admitted to my fact and then say I don't get my facts straight? Ha Ha, this is so much fun.

No, you apparently can't tell the difference between deficit and debt, which shouldn't be surprising considering you can't tell the difference between their and there.

And considering that you can't even spell "debt", I'd say no, you aren't smarter than a fifth grader.

Yes I misspell words sometimes, it happens all the time on these threads. I am not writing a thesis here. Deficit spending is not going down and the national debt keeps rising. The US spends $414Billion a year just paying interest on the National DEBT. Social Security and Medicare exceed the DoD. We can cut Defense spending, sure, but the number of people dependent on government spending will continue to rise. Will you tell me what the Debt ceiling should be? $20T ? $50T? $100T

Social Security and Medicare exceed the DoD.

Could this maybe be, because, you know, we have the baby boomers retiring?

Do you have any common sense whatsoever?

You couldn't write a thesis if your life depended on it. You lack not just grammar, but raw intelligence.

Fiscal year 2011

Medicare/Medicade = $835Billion or %24 of the budget

Social Security = $725Billion or %20 of the budget

Total = $1,560 Billion or %44 of the budget

DoD = $700Billion or %19

Those are the FACTS! Its not that complicated.

The government can control spending on Defense, it cannot control how many people retire or get sick.

it cannot control how many people retire

Actually it can. It can raise the age to qualify for SS.

Raise the retirement age to what 100? Do you have a grasp on reality? Raising it from 65 to 67 is only "kicking the can down the road".

Bush left a 1.42 trillion deficit, remember that deficits add to the debt. He left an economy on the verge of total collapse -9% gdp and 750,000 jobs loss when he left.

458 billion deficit for Bush in 2008 per cbo

500+ billion lost in revenue in 2008 per cbo = 1 trillion not including the rise of medicare and wars and the 185 billion of the Obama stimulus.

Medicare part D will keep on growing every year because Bush and co made sure it did not have price controls on drugs being provided. The drug company can raise prices and there isn't anything we can do about it. The government would just pay for it. Frankly i think this was done on purpose to destroy medicare. The Ryan plan will kill medicare and Ryan also voted for part d.

Wars were being paid trough appropriations, Obama made sure they were added to the deficit .

Why do i have to repeat this everyday??????

Remember that next year the deficit is going to be below 900 billion. So he would have cut 520 billion from the deficit and all of this while growing the economy, creating almost 4 million jobs(till now), investing billions into energy that will creates millions of jobs and get us off foreign oil.

I could go on and on and still your @$#@ @$$es would not understand it.

Raise the retirement age to what 100? Do you have a grasp on reality? Raising it from 65 to 67 is only "kicking the can down the road".

You're assuming all those people live to be 65-67. They don't.

It's astounding how many Republicans are still confused and misinformed about our national debt. Here are the facts, which anybody can look up at the Bureau of Public Debt:

When Reagan became president, the national debt was less than $1 trillion.

He and Bush Sr. promptly quadrupled it, passing a $350 billion annual deficit on to Clinton.

Clinton eventually balanced the budget, thanks primarily to the Deficit Reduction Act of 1993, which not one single Republican in Congress voted for.

We were on a path toward eradicating the national debt altogether when Bush Jr. became president.

Bush took the projected surpluses and turned them into nearly $6.1 trillion in additional debt, handing a failed economy and a $1.42 trillion (actually more) annual deficit to Obama.

Virtually all of the debt incurred since then (we're past $15 trillion now thanks to Reagan Republicans) has been due to: the effects of the Great Recession, the two botched Bush wars, Medicare Part D (not paid for under Bush), and the two Bush tax cuts.

The Recovery Act REDUCED deficits after it was enacted (see the Blinder/Zandi report).

Get a clue Republicans or you will continue to ruin your own country. Let the smart people continue fixing the mess that Bush and the Republicans made.

For the last 3 decades the rich have bombarded us with propaganda saying that the "next" tax break was going to rescue the country. Thirty years later we have falling infrastructure, failing schools, rampant joblessness, broken social programs, etc.. And the only thing that's changed is millionaires became billionaires.

Ruken

Raise the retirement age to what 100? Do you have a grasp on reality? Raising it from 65 to 67 is only "kicking the can down the road".

You're assuming all those people live to be 65-67. They don't.

Everyday more and more people are starting to live longer because of new medicines and technologies.

Remember that there's cures for cancer now, if detected early, which Obamacare will make sure it does.

People living longer is exactly why they want to raise the age to qualify.

but you just said they don't!!

but you just said they don't!!

I said not all do.

Not everyone lives to be 67 years old.

By raising the age, the savings are two fold.

1) More SS contributors will die before they can collect benefits, thereby saving money.

2) With people living longer, that's less years they are receiving benefits.

ALEX CALI,

BWHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!!!!

as soon as someone comes down with cancer they will be on the clock, the money clock that is.

canada has death pannels that determin the "worth" of a persons life, so i can guarantee the US will also.
even their politicans come here for cancer treatment cause its better!

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20070914/belinda_Stronach_070914/

heart surgery? thats right, here in the good ole USA

http://blogs.ajc.com/bob-barr-blog/2010/02/10/canadian-premier-comes-to-us-for-heart-surgery/

they even go to detroit for health care

http://www.freep.com/article/20090820/BUSINESS06/908200420/Canadians-visit-U-S-get-health-care

so what is national health care going to do to us?

send us to mexico?

A very important article you all should read

Forbes:"Gas Prices Are Not Rising, the Dollar is Falling"

@ OMG really people?!!

Agreed, but I anticipate that the US is going to hold its nationalized healthcare with a lot more suspicion than the Canadians did when they established theirs.

In general, I'm not terribly thrilled about the HCR bill that was passed, but we are reaching an impasse when it comes to healthcare costs and the US will suffer far greater to not take necessary action ahead of time.

I am at least glad that a bill passed, because it breaks the ice and establishes a framework that can be modified and augmented.

Starting fresh won't cut it, Republicans are hypocrites and the Democrats are chicken****. At least now the ball is rolling in the right direction and now we just need to guide it away from obstacles down the road...THAT is a lot more feasible than if we just repealed and did nothing or simply acted like we were trying to do something.

Doing nothing will result in the Babyboomers bankrupting our systems otherwise

OMG really people?!!@

What nationalized health care? Did you morons even read the bill, or did you let Rush tell you what was in it.

Wake up now! ...(#4.12)..."Raise the retirement age to what 100? Do you have a grasp on reality? Raising it from 65 to 67 is only "kicking the can down the road".

When Social Security was invented the S.S. Retirement age was set at 65.....Life Expectancy was 58.....it was never meant to be the sole source of retirement funds....more for widows that outlived their husbands retirement funds....In 1975 they started indexing by birthdate when "retirement age " was reached...It goes up a few months for every year.....to 67 now....they are only talking about continuing the indexing to age 69.....Life expectancy now is about 80.

@ Mike in Delray

You can monkey with SSI all you want, if you don't make it comprehensive and liquid, all of those Baby Boomers that have lived in perpetual debt for decades are going to be collecting foodstamps and welfare if SSI doesn't cut it.

At least SSI is invested and actually has a structure designed to handle cash and strive to be a net-net venture overall. Welfare is not designed to do that, it is strictly a payout structure and supposed to be a temporary safety net.

If we continue to allow government to borrow from the unobligated gains of SSI and replace it with IOU's offering little-to-no interest while simultaneously hobbling the pay-ins, you are merely shifting the largest generation in US history to rely on public welfare instead.

Unless you plan on enacting a soilent-green or carousel policy to cull the herd.

I'd rather not have people starving in the street if they are incapable of working and you don't want to allocate additional funds to welfare to pick up the slack...Romney thinks the poor are doing fine after all, right?

(yes I know I'm taking his quote out of context, he's still an insensitive sycophant however)

Ruken, I read all your comments and I conclude you are a total idiot. Get lost, find a job.

true defense and security related federal spending tops 1.5 trillion if you do some truth in lending facts.. include supplements, Homeland security, CIA, even about 30-45% of the 400+ billion interest to service the debt is "past" borrowing related to security and defense spending.

Medicare is big and growing, but look at the massive numbers of folks in the US 65 and older and living longer and longer and here we come the baby boomers -- I am 10 years out from 65..

retired military after 22+ years - so a piece of my retirement and healthcare are tied up in the defense spending

Dr. T

Umm, wasn't the original article about gasoline prices and alternative energy?

Now, alternative energy is all great but we're not at a point where we can depend on it. As to drill, baby, drill, if the oil is sold on the international market, what good does all that drilling here do? If the saber rattling with Iran is the cause, then perhaps some more serious 'conversations' with Iran are in order. What is really the cause?

The dollar is worth less, so it buys less. The oil companies are profiteering. The OPEC nations lied. All of the above and then some. So, Obama is partly correct when he states that there is nothing the Federal Gov can do about prices, short of nationalizing the oil...and cutting back on the taxes attached to a gallon of gasoline.

Mygirl, the gasoline taxes fund the infrastructure. So unless you want your nearest major highway crumbling, I'd say we keep the gasoline tax the way it is. And Ruken and alex, I couldn't agree more. Why do conservatives still think that Obama caused the deficit to rise to over a trillion dollars, when it was the combination of Bush's spending and the recession???

About SS-there are better ways for fixing SS than raising the retirement age (although raising it to 69 would help tremendously.

Here is my deficit proposal to fix the economy and the debt crisis (note how it will NOT privatize entitlements nor will it contain only spending cuts).

I. Reduce the debt by $8 trillion over 10 years.

• $750 billion in defense cuts: cut waste in private contracting; reduce investments in new military projects to more sustainable levels; reduce active military personnel by about 8%; demolish 200 bases to save over $55 billion a year; prioritize investments for drones, efficient weapon systems, and cyber-defense systems.
• $1.25 trillion in entitlement savings: Raise payroll cap to 90% of income; reinstate COLA; reinstate estate taxes; raise premiums for beneficiaries who make over $250,000; progressive indexing, raise retirement age to 69.
• Cut $1.5 trillion from discretionary spending except from NASA and Department of Education. Find ways to remove waste, trim costs, etc.
• Save $2.8 trillion by repealing Bush tax cuts but retaining about $1 trillion for the middle class.
• Institute Buffet Rule and save $500 billion.
• Reform tax code: decrease about 70% of all tax expenditures unless they are PROVEN to promote a significant amount of growth. Close loopholes, lower corporate tax rate to between 20-25%. Eliminate all corporate welfare. Approximate savings=$ 737.1 billion a year.
• Reduce subsidies to oil companies, farmers, and ethanol producers by $100 billion.
• Total savings=~$13 trillion plus perhaps trillions more in interest.

I am not joking. Check (http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3472). Just removing 90% of our tax code's loopholes and tax expenditures would save $947 billion a year. Maybe we ought to do that and simply reform entitlements and we'd have practically no debt by the mid-to-late 2020s.

II. Economic Recovery Package

• Education reform. Increase funding for Department of Education, adopt RAND education policy and further Head Start programs.
• Create Department of Tourism with $36 billion budget to support 150,000 employees to speed up process for foreign tourists to apply for visas to US and make system more efficient.
• $90 billion in infrastructure bank to leverage capital for infrastructure repairs to employ millions of Americans.
• Incorporate policies of Obama's Jobs Bill.
• Offer incentives for businesses to buy US-made equipment and to employ people in America to the tune of perhaps $2,000-$3,000 per head; includes only people earning the median salary that the companies provides for its workers.
• Increase duties and tariffs for Chinese goods to 35% until China appreciates its currency and lowers subsidies; place more cases on Chinese fraud and stealing,
• $60 billion in incentives and federal loans and grants to green technology.
• Regulatory overview to decrease unnecessary regulations for economy and add regulations were needed.
• Reinstate Glass-Steagall.
• Lift moratorium on offshore oil drilling and open up certain areas for energy exploration WITH safety and environmental precautions and insure safety.
• Invest $40 billion in new R&D projects.
• Offer more scholarships and Pell grants; prioritize scholarships to promote getting degrees in engineering, technology, etc.
• Negotiate lower tuition deals with private institutions in return for aid and invest more money public higher education. Negotiate with states for a state education surtax to pay for public universities.
• Help housing market: tighten regulations on housing and financial markets, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; create partnership programs between the government and the private sector to buy houses and rent it out to former owners; persuade banks to write off parts of underwater mortgages; quicken time for foreclosures; demolish old buildings to open up to construction projects.
• Increase federal gasoline tax to $.225/gallon and use extra revenues to revamp infrastructure.
• Extend payroll tax cut.
• Reform Post Office. Eliminate 60,000 payrolls through early retirement, increase stamp costs to $.51, cut administrative salaries and budgets, pay freeze, adopt methods that FedEx and UPS do, transition to an energy-efficient postal fleet and turn postal buildings "green," and find more ways to trim costs.

OBAMA BIDEN 2012

Hey, Freshiee,

How's $3.79/gal national avg. for gas doing for you when, under Bush when he left office, it was $1.89? Bush DID SOMETHING to bring down prices, namely, he asked the Saudis to bump exports. I worked. Not so for your hero, Obama. Also, consider this before you go to the polls to vote for your savior, Obama:

Read this article from Thomas Sowell before you even consider to vote this November. Feel free to pass it on:

____

Many people are looking to the many primary elections on March 6th -- "Super Tuesday" -- to clarify where this year's Republican nomination campaign is headed.

It may clarify far more than that, including the future of this nation and of Western civilization. If a clear winner with a commanding lead emerges, the question then becomes whether that candidate is someone who is likely to defeat Barack Obama.

If not, then the fate of America -- and of Western nations, including Israel -- will be left in the hands of a man with a lifelong hostility to Western values and Western interests.

President Obama is such a genial man that many people, across the ideological space, cannot see him as a danger.

For every hundred people who can see his geniality, probably only a handful see the grave danger his warped policies and ruthless tactics pose to a whole way of life that has given generation after generation of Americans unprecedented freedom and prosperity.

The election next November will not be just another election, and the stakes add up to far more than the sum of the individual issues. Moreover, if reelected and facing no future election, whatever political constraints may have limited how far Obama would push his radical agenda will be gone.

He would have the closest thing to a blank check. Nothing could stop him but impeachment or a military coup, and both are very unlikely. A genial corrupter is all the more dangerous for being genial.

Elect a man to be President of the United States without any qualifications. What could go wrong?

Things are better now than they were three years ago.

Clotho,

We will both have to wait until November. I do believe that the people will speak reality with their votes. If things are better Obama will be re-elected.

LMAO! Your a moron!

LMAO! Your a moron!

That's "You're".

If you're going to rail on someone else, it be best you at least have knowledge that any 5th grader has.

What's you'res is myne

hehehe

@ Super Bon

Nice one, dingus

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt

--Some dude who wrote books in the 1800's

LOL

Ah yes, those good old days when we were still fighting in Iraq, when we were borrowing big chunks of $$$ every month to pay for two wars, and then the world's financial markets collapsed, the housing market burst, the DOW went to 6000, and 700,000 folks were losing their jobs every month.

Yeah, those were good old days alright. But hey, gas was cheap!

After years of crying about it the Republican party with the help of a few ignorant demos managed to get the oil industry deregulated and soon gas shot from $1 to $5 and oil company profits quadrupled. It seems like GREEDY capatalism by one of the corporate masters of the Republican Party is the main reason for our being gouged to the tune of billions every month. Without government intervention and reregulating oil we are in for a rough ride.

So now the cause of the deficit now is the recession and the Bush economy. The talking points of the liberals change almost daily. It was not that long ago that you liberals blamed it all solely on Bush. So who (and what) caused the recession? Take a look at these links and tell me what you think.

Here are links to articles discussing the causes of the credit crisis , I dare you to come up with some llinks to prove YOUR POINT:

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/subprime.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4A0RuXhnQA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UZ9l_AxKjA&feature=related

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/interviews/born.html

And the one that goes into how Frank/Dodd will probably get us into even more trouble:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2011/07/joseph-stiglitz-barney-frank-r.html

And I almost forgot what Clinton handed to Bush before he left:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/24/the-dot-com-bubble-how-to-lose-5-trillion/

You have no idea what the pipeline is for..... Its not going to do a dam@ thing for us.

Get informed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IDI@t

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/02/22/430234/bought-by-big-oil-house-gop-vote-against-keeping-keystone-xl-oil-in-america/

restricting development

Show some proof for this??????

You guys think you found a way to attack our president and that somehow repeating lies its going to help elect a republican. All your representatives are crap and don't stand a chance against Obama.

The fact is, this is the President who as a candidate told us that "energy prices, by necessity, will greatly increase." This is what he wants.

JAJAJAJAJA!!!! Yeah right. again taking words out of context????? You republicans think all of us Americans who care for our country are stupid. He said that when he was talking about cap and trade... what happened to cap and trade? he had a chance to pass this back in 09 and 10.... Rush was scared to death back in 2010 he really thought Obama was going to pass cap and trade.

Plus he said this a few days before the election. he still won by more than 10,000,000 votes.

I bet our president will still find another way to make republicans look like idiots again, just like he did in December.

mel, you personify the term "low information voter" better than any Webster dictionary could explain it. Go back to watching your cartoons.

Substitute "voter" for "citizen" and then it will be more accurate.

Yet more ignorance and misplaced blame from the right wing. Oil is traded on the GLOBAL market and the price of it is NOT determined by demand but rather by speculators. Domestic oil production has increased under Obama and our stand-off with Iran is having a direct impact on the price.

For all of you conspiracy theorists (aka those who believe Obama in a Kenyan, not a christian, not born in hawaii, scientists are trying to enrich themselves by falsifying climate change reports, etc.) take a look at Oregon senator Ron Wyden's 2001 report to congress concerning refining capacity within the US. Here is a link: http://wyden.senate.gov/issues/gas_prices/pdfs/wyden_oil_report.pdf

In addition, there is very little a standing president can do to change gas prices... I don't blame Bush for the high gas prices during his tenure but rather the fact that the Congress during that time killed efficiency standards and neglected putting any SERIOUS effort into alternatives such as wind, solar and geothermal to help reduce our use of fuels derived from oil thereby reducing the demand for gas which in turn reduces the cost of gas (I say gas NOT oil as oil is a commodity and tis thusly traded as such.

Notliborcon: more Left wing BS. I'll make it simple as I can... there is no conspiracy. In fact, gas costs exactly the same as it costs 50 years ago. Back then gas costs 25 cents a gallon, only thing was that quarters (then) were made of silver. Today that same silver quarter is worth about $4, the same as a gallon of gas. left wing morons make it a greed issue when, in fact , the percent profit hasn't really changed at all. The dollar is in a free fall because of the raising National Debt. On the supply side, Obama has interfered with domestic production by overrreulation. ie: EPA, etc

US oil production declined steadily from 1984 until 2008. In 2008 production has risen every year with the current production level being higher than any year during the Bush administration. So how much interference has this president committed?

Cal 20... Your argument holds NO water. Inflation does have an impact as well as the value of the dollar but only because oil is traded in dollars. Oil is a global commodity traded on the futures market and therefore is NOT dependent on demand. Speculators drive the cost of oil. Gasoline on the other hand driven by demand. Did you read Wyden's report or are you afraid to step out of the bubble? There is a vested interest for refiners to limit the production of gasoline and other products from refining oil. The documents presented in the report show, at the very least, that the refiners do communicate with one another. What do they discuss? Are they colluding to reduce the levels of gasoline on the market? Up to you to decide... I am not trying to tell you what to think but rather providing you with the information to make a more informed opinion.

Regulation of refineries is ABSOLUTELY necessary... think about it. In order to refine oil to obtain propane, gasoline and other fuels you must boil it. In other words, introducing heat to a combustible fluid. Without regulations more accidents like the 2010 Anacortes explosion (5 dead), 2005 texas city explosion (11 dead), etc.will most definitely occur. Why don't you go work at one of the refineries and see how regulation is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Or can we build a new refinery in your back yard... that surely would increase the level of gas on the market and therefore reduce prices.

Under Obama domestic production of oil is at its highest level since 2003. So, how exactly do you justify your comment that "On the supply side, Obama has interfered with domestic production by overrreulation. ie: EPA, etc"

How do you feel about fueling your car with dead dinosaurs and, ostensibly, dead refiners?

So you are saying inflation has nothing to do with what it cost to purchase those things we need to live?

Did you read the first sentence I wrote?

cal20

actually its about 10 cents for a gallon of gas. (silver prices have come up more vs gas price.)

I understand your point. The fact that most Americans are so ignorant of our monetary system is staggering.

The Keystone pipeline was going to be used to export oil. It's amazing people still don't see that.

Think of why they'd need to build a trans-American pipeline, and bypass a bunch of oil refineries on their way to Texas.

Thank you! Finally someone who doesn't swallow the Republican election-year BS hook, line and sinker.

Get a clue, people. The oil companies are exporting our oil & gas - making a quick buck at the expense of our economic recovery. Then they can blame higher prices on the current administration to help elect their Republican stooges.

We do not have the capacity in the U.S. to refine all the oil we produce. Some of it is exported because it is produced in areas, like the West Coast, where there is little refining capacity, so it's exported. (Not sure if you're aware, but a lot of companies in the U.S. export their goods overseas where there is a demand for them.)

The Keystone pipeline is planned to go to the Gulf Coast because that is where the largest refining capacity in U.S. exist. Minnesota can currently refine about 400,000bbls of oil per day. Texas can refine over 9,700,000bbls per day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries#United_States

KN..."The oil companies are exporting our oil & gas..."

OUR oil? If you don't want the oil companies exporting your oil, don't sell it to them.

I didn't say take it all to MN. I just used it as a reference that there are closer refineries that can take the load.

Routing the pipeline past all the refineries in the Midwest and central South just to get to Texas is retarded. It only serves one logical purpose, and that's an easy export. This is why one we denied it, they are going to build their pipeline to British Columbia. Because it's easier to export it to China / India.

Last night, I heard this point. The govt controls oil production. The oil companies get the product and do what they want with it. Problem is, the oil doesn't belong to govt OR to oil companies. It belongs to US, the people! Yes, we need to pay the oil companies for extracting it but we should decide what happens to it. Oil is now the largest export. It's time to tell the oil companies there will be a LARGE tax for shipping our oil overseas. if they can tell me what light bulb to use, they can surely tell the oil companies that!

Piping it to multiple refineries is a good idea, and it would happen if it were economically feasible. Don't think for a second a producer or refiner will pass up an opportunity to make a buck. That is what they are in business for, to make money. And you are correct that much of the oil would be exported because the capacity to refine all it does not exist even in Texas. However, we do import a lot of oil from the Middle East, and that pipeline would go a long way toward reducing those imports.

dirt..."It belongs to US, the people!"

When were mineral deposits in the U.S. nationalized?

H's, just be patient. It will happen in due time. Probably after martial law.

hs321 -

Minerals on or under Federal lands (and most of them are) most certainly belong to the US public. Have you never heard of the Bureau of Land Management? Management of publicly owned resources is their primary responsibility. And if it's not Federally owned land, it's State owned land. And btw the Department of Energy controls production levels, import and export of oil.

Ruken
I believe the reason that the oil needs to go to the Texas refineries is because those refineries are set up to refine the low-grade crude. I don't know much about the MN refineries but I do know that all oil is not created equal and only certain refineries can actually handle this crude.

I may be wrong but I do remember reading this. My husband is a petroleum engineer and I was in the business for 26+ years (I was in IT) but I do still read his publications from time to time.

I, like Ruken, am an environmentalist. And, like Ruken, I support the expansion of things like nuclear power plants (to be honest, I am excited about the possibility of gaining energy through nuclear fusion). I also want to build more refineries in America (I'll go against environmentalists on that issue). But the EPA is not bad. Sure, we could reform the environmental regulatory system, but replacing the EPA with an "ESA" is both too costly and unnecessary. And I don't have much reason to trust Newt that the new agency will do an efficient job, probably because of his claims of being able to send gas to $2.50 a gallon (only gonna happen if we find oil under the entire state of California or the economy tanks, which leads to drops in oil consumption). DOWN WITH RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM. DOWN WITH BIG OIL!! Come, my fellow Americans. Let us overthrow the evil tyrant that is Big Business and resurrect the old concept of government OF the PEOPLE, BY the PEOPLE, FOR the PEOPLE, and keep that government from ever perishing from the face of the Earth. DOWN WITH BIG F***ING BUSINESS!!!!!!

OBAMA BIDEN 2012

And to all those "small government" conservatives:

Stay out of women's f***ing business. Stay out of gay people's f***ing business. Leave our government and go to live with your "leader" Grover Norquist. Stay out of the government's f***ing business you hypocritical slaves to Big Business. You don't deserve to serve the American people and ought to be tried for your treasonous acts. But, as we are a somewhat merciful people, the American voter will not send you to jail. We'll just vote you out of office. See you in November!!!!

TO HELL RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM AND BIG BUSINESS

TO HELL WITH VOODOO ECONOMICS AND TAX CUTS

Brian, I believe the majority of minerals onshore are privately owned. The state and federal government together own all offshore minerals and, not sure, but I would tend to agree with you that combined offshore and onshore that the government holds the largest amount of mineral rights.

Our government, to raise revenue, leases the mineral rights to private industry, which then extracts the minerals if economically feasible. Usually the government will get a royalty from the production.

The minerals belong to the government, however, the government is not the people. Freshieee may wish for that all day and night, but wishing will not make it so.

Best I could find on a quick search is the BLM manages 1/8 of the U.S. and between state and federal the government owns ~1/3 of the onshore mineral rights.

Freshieee

TO HELL WITH VOODOO ECONOMICS AND TAX CUTS

To hell with you and your comments as well. Get a clue. Read a book. Talk to a Frenchman or a Russian. Ask them if their past systems of socialism and communism worked out for them. It didn't, and it won't for us when Obama takes us there. That is his goal.

ouch, he had 6 trillion and counting of deficit spending since in office. Hes just collecting pennies on the dollar from the people that got the money. Libs are only puppets helping their crony capitalists to stay rich and in power. Its unfortunate that people dont see the media as using morons to enslave themselves to big govt. Let freedom ring in 2012 , again.

Jealous of rich people, eh? Don't be. The thing about rich people donating to Democrats is, they are not voting for their own selfish interest like the Koch brother types are. They don't stand to gain financially, they just care about the country.

Obama has not spent even close to 6 trillion in deficit spending. It's either 4 trillion or more accurately about $983 billion with a more correct, though complicated explanation. As we all know, anyone inheriting the Bush Recession was going to have to increase entitlement spending to avoid a Second Great Depression. It worked.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/ezra-klein-doing-the-math-on-obamas-deficits/2012/01/31/gIQAnRs7fQ_story.html

Clotho..."The thing about rich people donating to Democrats is, they are not voting for their own selfish interest..."

Just curious, would you be interested in buying some water-front property?

Yea, rich people only donate to one party, not both!

-.-

Balls - Totally agree with you. I wouldn't pay $.30 to see this clown. And at Vince Carter's house? Vince peaked in 2002.

Clotho,

Jealous of rich people, eh? Don't be. The thing about rich people donating to Democrats is, they are not voting for their own selfish interest like the Koch brother types are.

ROGLMFAO!!!!!!!!

See my moniker.

I guess I won't be rooting for the Mavericks anymore. LOL

For the love of God you need to go away moron!

Super Bon

A very well worded and thoroughly thought out post. I know we all learned a great deal from that.

You obviously don't live in the country, Grandpa. if I were to wait for the train or the bus to come pick me up, I'd be there a VERY long time, FOREVER!

Yeah, and those buses that the farmers use so they can plow, sow and reap so that the urban centers can get food really are a sight to see. Not to mention it sure is heartwarming to see those construction workers riding those buses around as they either put up buildings or pave roads. Why, the small-scale train that runs through my fields to pick up the hay that our neighbor cuts with a scythe and hand-bales so he can feed his cattle is so precious it's ridiculous.

Yea, except the corporations that frack are either doing it incorrectly, or fracking itself is flawed. We'll have natural gas, but who needs drinking water?

bckrd1 #14. And, if you read my post above, the govt is controlling assets that belong to US, THE PEOPLE, and then they let the oil company TAKE our assets. They must be forced to keep the oil in the country or pay a HUGE tax for exporting it. People will say there aren't refineries. BS. there's one about 20 miles to me that WAS to reopen when Keystone started up. Tehre are other refineries also ready to go.

dirt..."the govt is controlling assets that belong to US, THE PEOPLE..."

Uh no. The assets belong to whoever owns the mineral rights where the oil is being produced. Do you know anything about property and/or mineral rights ownership?

bckrd1

The Congress can put a halt to the oil speculation by the huge financial houses and impose high taxes on the profits of those who manipulate the oil markets. Unfortunately we can't prevent those outside of the US from doing it so until oil speculation is considered a threat against national security not much will change. It is immoral to be able to make others suffer so you can get rich off of the financial misery caused by this manipulation of energy.

With the current makeup of Congress, increasing taxes on petroleum profits will NEVER happen!

Which is why I said " until oil speculation is considered a threat against national security not much will change"

There has to be a stigma against those who trade in such economically damaging commodities. Until they are made to feel like the vermin they are they will continue to do what they do.

Yes, Doc and bckrd1 that is exactly what conservative minds forget. Government with the responsibility to enhance the welfare of All, should be able to get revenue from those sectors that drive prices higher, and increase inflation, especially sectors and products that a vast majority of our economy and society use. Conservative view that Government drives the inflation bubbles, is contradictory to our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Go figure.

Coal powered volts ha ha!

We need to keep repeating the Coal powered Volts line, that's good.

He can push more green policy by giving our money away to solar companies that go bankrupt. How is that going to make us less dependant on foreign oil? It will make our deficit grow that is for sure.

I know one good source of alternative energy this country has not even attempted to tap. We just hook up a turbine to Obama mouth. That should be enough energy to take care of at least half of our problem.

Or we could just burn the money in incinerators that he throws away on green energy, Problem solved.

I'd would live (and do live) near a nuclear power plant.

I would rather live near a nuke than a coal plant.

Oil companies make less profit on a gallon of gas than the government does in taxes on the same gallon.

If we boycott gasoline, the government will have to increase taxes to make up for the lost revenue.

If we boycott gasoline, they'd also pay less for road / highway maintenance and construction, which are what gas taxes go to pay for.

but of course Ruken the pols have robbed the money from the gas taxes for other things.

but of course Ruken the pols have robbed the money from the gas taxes for other things.

Like what?

I believe the federal gas tax is 18.4 cents a gallon. The state tax is different. But if the oil industry is having record profits, I doubt that they don't make a larger profit that the government. The government may make more collectively from all gasoline taxes, but that is because they charge EVERY gallon, not just from one company.

Son, did you see report yesterday that bankruptcy judge approved $370 M in bonuses for the Solyndra execs. Well, at least, he reduced it from $500M.

Please stop spreading fox news distortions. If you do a little research you may find it was 370,000 for people to continue the clean up of a major disaster and preserve the technology. The technology is good but the chinese were able to cut the price; there are several reason that contributed to the failure. But another government scandal was not one of them. Do some research and fact check stop trusting fox news and Republicans playing politics. They are only out to enrich their corporate masters. How do you like getting gouged at the pumps to help billionaires become trillionaires. Have the death panels come for your granny yet?

.................and of course your sources come from ????????????? Media Matters.......oh no....you have no sources...just Fox news is a liar.

We are doing that now and prices still go up supply and demand do not apply anymore.they said that it was cyclic.Ya cycles that involve in the fleecing of America.It happens every year or two. The only way out of this is revolution. A good old fashion boston tea party only with oil.

I'm not throwing my gasoline into the harbor! But yes, the price of oil goes up every summer.

A lot of people have already restricted their driving. Those of us in rural areas don't have much of a choice but to drive. If cutting down our travel is the answer to lowering costs, then Air Force One should stay grounded and the Obamas should quit going on so many vacations.

I would hate to be your Doctor...... "Wait he has no insurance, give him a aspirin and send him out the door"............

Probably because blaming Bush for prices was stupid.

Blaming Obama for prices now is equally if not even more stupid.

People tend to say ZOMG KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF BUSINESS. But then when oil prices go up they say ZOMG THE GOVERNMENT IS LETTING OIL PRICES GET HIGH JAKTALTJAKLTJALT!!!!

Do people think that the prices maybe aren't related to increased demand from China and India's rapid industrialization? Or maybe the fact our entire economy is based on a finite fossil fuel?

I saw 4.23 a gallon this morning in Sacramento.It has gone up 50 cents in 3 to 4 wks.

3.51 in Minneapolis.

5.59 in Orlando. 3.37 in Tucson. This is getting out of hand and someone needs to get schwacked for this.

Why not go to Faux news then and get the fabricated version you are so obviously craving!

The Republican party with the aid of a few dems managed to get oil deregulated and gas went from $1 to $5. Oil company profits quadrupled. The oil companies are among the corporate masters of the Republican Party. Right now if they can make a couple extra billion dollars and hurt Obama it would be a double whammy for them. I am not nieve enough to believe only Republicans are corrupt; corruption doesn't know party lines. However it is the Republicans that always strive to put the interest of their corporate masters above that of the citizen. I lost faith in this government 45 years ago when I learned that financial gain was the driving motivator behind washington politics and not the best interest of 'we the people'. I will add however that Obama is the most decent and honest president we have had in many years.

Blaming Obama is not more stupid than blaming Bush. When Obama took office the average price of gas per gallon was $1.84. It is now $3.74 and rising.

So, let's round up all those responsible and throw them in jail...

What law exactly did they break?

Nov 2012 - The end of an ERROR

Yea, because we can get Mr. "I don't care about the very poor" Romney, Mr. "Women have no rights to their own body" Santorium, Mr. "I want to repeal the Civil Rights Act" Paul, or Mr. "I f*ck anything with a vag" Gingrich.

Yea, those are all highly respectable candidates.

You want me to vote GOP? Give me someone I can vote for.

very funny ruken! like you could ever get your own mind and realize your govt is enslaving us, and you are helping. Youre the guy that brings his own rope and shovel to the execution.

Good one russ!

very funny ruken! like you could ever get your own mind and realize your govt is enslaving us, and you are helping. Youre the guy that brings his own rope and shovel to the execution.

Uh....what?

You are making no sense whatsoever.

Because the only thing that isn't helping, is politicians that are too concerned about reelection and the special interests instead of American citizens.

Ruken..."Because the only thing that isn't helping, is politicians that are too concerned about reelection and the special interests instead of American citizens." Amen to that!

It reminds me of this I read recently:

“The relevant question … is: How does allowing politicians to take more money in taxes from successful people, to squander in ways that will improve their own reelection prospects, make anything more "fair" for others?” – Thomas Sowell

This is way making PACs legal was retarded.

All Congressional terms + Presidential need to be refit to be one term limit.

For example, the POTUS should have one six year term. That way no worries / pandering about reelection, just get sh*t done.

Hey Ruken -

Why is it any of your business who Newt screws? JFK f*#$ed Marylin Monroe and he is quite revered as a past president. Slick Willy got head in the Oval Office, but hey, thats no problem either. Why is there a double standard here?

DAMN YOU REAGAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You stupid right-wing supply-sider!!!! Thanks to HIM we have a whole generation of right-wing idiots convinced that the government is enslaving us and that it is always the problem. IT IS NOT!!!!!! Damn it. The government may not always be the solution, but nor is it the problem. For Pete's sake. Damn right-wingers.

OBAMA BIDEN 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_energy_crisis

During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008.

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. This concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, projected reserves and the combined production rate of a field of related oil wells. In order to understand physical Peak oil, the growing effort for production must be considered. Physical Peak oil occurs earlier, because the overall efforts for production have increased in the past few decades.

What is peak oil? Oil is a finite resource. Put another way, there is only so much of it in the world. The peak oil theory is often mistakenly said to mean we are running out of oil. This is incorrect. The theory instead asserts that we have reached the maximum amount of oil we will be able to ever produce in a single day. From here on, we will be able to produce a little bit less each day. That will have ramifications such as war and vicious economic recessions.

http://www.thepeakoilquestion.com/

My bad, I thought he was asking about the record price of a barrel.

The US is using less oil then 5 years ago, we are using oil at levels going back to 1997. Does this concern anyone? Have we reached that point then; peak oil?

Alan:

I think it was the recession that cut our demand largely. With the economy starting to pick up again, and with jobs coming back from overseas, I could only see our demand going up once again.

Coupled with Iran being a douche, this would inevitably cause higher gas prices.

Peak oil theory is one conspiracy theory I tend to believe in. I remember as a small child during the 1970s, when there was a severe oil crisis. Even then, I knew that it had to run out eventually. If you think about it, it is shocking that, in the 21st century, we are still using 19th century fuels like oil and coal.

I haven't read about it for awhile, but I think we won't know when peak oil hits until a few years later. Some think we peaked a few years ago and the price will keep skyrocketing. Too bad we didn't invest in alternative energy back in the 1970s.

We are in the year 2012 we have a population of 312 Million people our economy system is complicated, we are no longer competing US competition we are competing on a global scale. So get use to it.

If we rewarded and shipped every good paying job over seas who would we have in the United States to buy the expensive items made. You guessed it rich people and based on the amount of money it cost there would not be enough rich people to satisfy any company.

Less government: Based on the statements above who would police these fools, who would tell them they are killing American with their products? You guessed it not the government, and why would the corporations listen to anyone knowing they can do anything they want. That's like going back to the 1800's. And Hell No we are not. Get used to regulations that make things fair. It's not perfect but that's what we have for now. And one more time if you solutions is let them police themselves look what just happen over the last 8 years let alone the last 30.

Fact for Fools: If you think the President wants to have high gas prices you are crazy. And blaming him or bush for it is a pea brain though. People will ask you if you keep that talking point were you home schooled or were you home schooled by Fox Noise who runs it 7/24. But I understand where they are coming from, if a stupid person hears it often enough they will surely believe it. Good Luck you 35 million Rekupes you still won't win. And here is why: You hate Blacks, Spanish, Gays, Women, and the youth. So if you can win the election with all white men the more power to you. But you better believe Blacks, Spanish, women and Gays VOTE.