In the words of The Hives, “I hate to say I told you so.”
Remember when the rising gas prices were threatening our very way of life and every politician who wanted a future in D.C. was playing the part of Chicken Little?
In the past few weeks, there have been many positive occurrences in the gas problem in the United states. On July 14, President Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling. The price of a barrel of crude oil dropped 6% and gas is now at its cheapest since June 5 at $123.29 per barrel. Now, before you start writing your congressman in a tizzy about the little fishies and bottom feeders who are going to have a massive hole drilled through their habitat, realize this. President Bush’s actions actively DO NOT DO ANYTHING. His gesture was enough to ease the minds of speculators and, therefore, the price drops. If you want to even greater results, bug your congressman to support lifting the congressional ban on offshore drilling. Of course, there are a number of governors who, even if the ban is lifted, will refuse the drill (The Govenator is on the record saying this) and effectively butcher his (or her) state’s economy.
Another eeason prices are slowly dropping is because the American people, is of the ridiculous gas prices, have been conserving gas. Everyone gets to keep a little bit of extra cash and it helps limit harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Everyone wins, right? HA!
About 18.4 cents out of the 4 or so dollars you pay for each gallon of gas go to the government (a.k.a. TAXES). People buy less gas, and the government (Congress) makes less revenue. With less money, Congress cannot afford to move forward with the plethora of programs to “raise the lifestyle of the common American”. One would expect that Congress, especially the Democrats (remember, the oneswho have been pushing conservation for decades now), would re-evaluate the necessity of some of the programs and cut a few to make up for the cut in revenue… but that would make too much sense. Your buddies (you know, the Democrats) want to raise the Gas tax around 5 cents more per gallon to makeup for lost revenue.
If you read that last part and the next words out of your mouth were “W.T.F.” you officially have more Common sense than at least half of Congress. It makes no sense. We do what politicians ask of us to help relieve the pressure of the gas prices, and we are punished by it. Thankfully, this tax increase has yet to be voted through and, with any luck, will die…a fiery painful death.
Keep things like this in mind when you go into the voting booth this novermber (or mail in your absentee ballot like me). If your senator or congressman is up for re-evaluation, please make sure he has taken Econ 101. Electing people with little to no knowlege of basic economic concepts to a body that affects our economy so greatly is like asking for Brittny Spears to perform quadruple bypass surgery on you. Every election always brings us painfuly close to oblivion (or so it seems based on the News). Don’t be responsible for it.
