Our Lady of Propane
They say never talk about religion or politics in mixed company, but I figure I've broken several sacred bloggy rules already, so what the hell. Have a seat.
Hilary Clinton is making me insane. She's here in town again, this time cruising to the gas pumps with sheet metal workers touting the woes of having to choose between feeding their kids and driving to work. Please. Yes, gas is ridiculous here now, pushing about $4.00 a gallon, but in Europe they're paying something like $9.00 a gallon! To talk in Depression-eque Roosevelt speak in an attempt to make everyone feel like she's Hillary H. Christ here to save our eternal consumer souls is appalling.
What's worse is the plan she and McCain are carrying underarm as they try to gallop in on their proverbial white horses - suspending the gas tax for the summer. Did they not take high school math and econ like I did? Seriously, this grandiose gesture of theirs is going to save the typical American family on average a whopping $32 over the course of the three months.
Not only that, but slashing the tax so abruptly and then putting it right back is only going to cause a temporary spike in the demand for gas - e.g. - more profits for the oil companies, not less. These companies were never going to see that tax in the first place, as it's meant for the highway trust fund (which supports road and bridge maintenance), so what do the refineries care?? Especially under McCain who has no intention of making anyone pay back the $9 billion the fund would be out. Ugh. Talk about your Robin Hood in reverse.
Hillary does plan to hike the tax on oil companies' profits in order to reimburse the fund, but you know what, this doesn't fix anything even if she does manage to get it through all those good ol' boys on Capital Hill. Plainly, this is a quick fix fight that doesn't need to happen. Supply, demand, lifting taxes, imposing taxes, none of this speaks to the core problem that we simply need to switch to renewable energy instead of depending on foreign oil or drilling for more. There are so many imperative reasons for this, the least of which is the skyrocketing price of filling up the H2 for the week.
Until we address the cause, we only postpone the cure. Though hey, being sick in this country does seem to turn quite a profit for the powers that be, but oh man is that another post...
Hilary Clinton is making me insane. She's here in town again, this time cruising to the gas pumps with sheet metal workers touting the woes of having to choose between feeding their kids and driving to work. Please. Yes, gas is ridiculous here now, pushing about $4.00 a gallon, but in Europe they're paying something like $9.00 a gallon! To talk in Depression-eque Roosevelt speak in an attempt to make everyone feel like she's Hillary H. Christ here to save our eternal consumer souls is appalling.
What's worse is the plan she and McCain are carrying underarm as they try to gallop in on their proverbial white horses - suspending the gas tax for the summer. Did they not take high school math and econ like I did? Seriously, this grandiose gesture of theirs is going to save the typical American family on average a whopping $32 over the course of the three months.
Not only that, but slashing the tax so abruptly and then putting it right back is only going to cause a temporary spike in the demand for gas - e.g. - more profits for the oil companies, not less. These companies were never going to see that tax in the first place, as it's meant for the highway trust fund (which supports road and bridge maintenance), so what do the refineries care?? Especially under McCain who has no intention of making anyone pay back the $9 billion the fund would be out. Ugh. Talk about your Robin Hood in reverse.
Hillary does plan to hike the tax on oil companies' profits in order to reimburse the fund, but you know what, this doesn't fix anything even if she does manage to get it through all those good ol' boys on Capital Hill. Plainly, this is a quick fix fight that doesn't need to happen. Supply, demand, lifting taxes, imposing taxes, none of this speaks to the core problem that we simply need to switch to renewable energy instead of depending on foreign oil or drilling for more. There are so many imperative reasons for this, the least of which is the skyrocketing price of filling up the H2 for the week.
Until we address the cause, we only postpone the cure. Though hey, being sick in this country does seem to turn quite a profit for the powers that be, but oh man is that another post...
posted by Wil at 11:20 AM
19 Comments:
I don't suppose y'all could snare her could ya? and keep her hidden for a couple of decades ;-)
I would gladly ride my bike to work a couple of times a week, 21 miles one way if I wasn't so damned scared of being killed.
Sheesh :-)
With the Kahuna taking on religion and you taking on politics I think the dynamic podcast duo sure do have it covered. I hear you. Obama has my vote!
My work is with an organization that provides support services to those who are on the brink of poverty. Not poor enough to receive federal services, but poor enough to be one paycheck away from eviction or repossession. The working poor. Thousands of them in my county alone. Hundreds of thousands across the country.
Our clients DO chose between groceries and gas. All the time. It's simply part of their reality. Many of them hitchhike to work to accommodate the weekly electricity bill. They walk when they can and share as often as possible. But even then, the cost to fill a tank of gas for them is a huge percentage of their paycheck. Much larger than many can imagine.
It has also changed the scope of social services and the conversation around self-sufficiency and how to reach it. It has changed the patterns of hiring (especially in more rural communities) and job attrition, application for support services and the scope of state grants. It's a very real problem.
I'm not one for "the barn is burning" politics -- and I'm also not a Hillary supporter if that adds any credence to my comments. But I do know that there is a portion of our neighbors and coworkers whose lives are drastically impacted by having to pay out $50 for a tank of gas when they only make $160 a week after taxes.
And those are my (ha ha) two cents... .
this, wil is nothing more than smoke and mirrors....no matter what the freaking cost of gas is....
I have just 9 miles each way to work, to echo wes's thoughts, and I am seriously thinking of doing this a couple days each week.
Did you see her try to get a soda at a 7 eleven. She couldn't figure it out. Talk about elitist.
I understand what you're saying ImAble, and agree that people do in fact have to make these calls between gas and electicity bills, but the price of gas itself isn't the real problem, it's just another symptom. That's all I was trying to say.
The state of the dollar is in big trouble right now because of many other factors. Swooping in and making a huge campaign propelling deal out of the price of gas the way they are is like fussing dramatically over a fever while completely resigned from the fact a kid eats like crap, sleeps like crap and makes used tissue forts all day.
You're right - this 'holiday' from the gas tax idea is not the right fix to the problem.
I tried the bike to work thing for a while, but I agree with Wes - it was pretty scary out there on the main roads of Los Angeles during rush hour. I wish we had a more bicycle friendly atmosphere on our roads out here.
So what are your thoughts on the Economic Stimulus Payments? ;)
Fumo Santo - regarding the stimulus package, two things: while it's better than just ignoring the situation, honestly I think it was too little too late. By the time the country sees the real effects of the payments on the economy, chances are greater than not it'll already be just about, if not completely out of the recession. If that happens, we'll have a situation where people have money, prices/interests rates will be low, and this will probably lead to inflation again because there will be such a huge and sudden flux in demand.
As people aren't suddenly going to get raises to match the rising prices, we'll also no doubt find ourselves right back in a recession again. So in a nutshell, good intentions, sure, but in the end it's all very "quick fix" oriented and avoiding the real problems at hand.
OK, this is a little winded but I feel like I need to get my point across.
The biggest problem is that Americans lack a basic understanding of economics. They dont understand that one reason prices are up is because worldwide demand is increasing while supplies are decreasing. They dont understand that the so called "greedy big oil companies" only make 9 CENTS per dollar of sales, while the government takes over 30 cents. They dont understand that if you levy a "Windfall Profit" tax on these companies, they will in turn raise prices and cut jobs.
There are 2 solutions that need to be addressed: short term and long term. Oil use is not going away in the short term. There is not one single solution out there right now that could remove the need for oil. Plus, even if there was its not like everyone can go out and buy a new car tomorrow.
So in the short term we need to either decrease demand or increase supply. Increasing prices will cause demand to decrease slightly which may lead to stabilization of prices. The big solution is to increase supply. OPEC refuses to increase output.We need to find ways to increase the supply of oil in this country. We have not built a new refinery in like 30 years in this country. We have several areas in this country where there is a large amount of oil in the ground that could drastically cut our demand for foreign oil.
Long term we do need to find alternative sources of energy. Ethanol is not the answer. It takes more energy to produce ethanol then it does to produce gasoline. Congresses push to increase ethanol production has had such a negative effect on our economy. The price of corn has dramatically increased causeing prices for beef,chicken, and pork to rise. This has also led farmers to move from producing wheat or other products to produce corn. This has also led to increase in price for wheat as well.
Unfortunately the lovely politicians in DC and those running for El Presidente play on people's fears and think more taxes and greater regulation is the answer. Until congress wakes up and proposes realistic solutions this problem will continue.
Oh and one final note. We are not in a recession. GDP growth for the first quarter was a measley 0.6 percent. This is still positive GDP growth, thus by the definition we are NOT in a recession.
What we need in this country is LESS government and MORE personal responsibilty
I love love love this post and the discussions it's brought on.
The "solution" of Hilary's and Obama's health plans run into the same problem. First of all, they don't even get the fact that the reason many people don't have insurance is because of switching jobs and working for employers too small to provide insurance. Then they want to add more people to government insurance.
This creates problems. More people under the government = more hospitals and doctors getting paid only what the government would pay (which is too little) which = the more people with their own insurance, including through their employer, will pay, which then = more people needing to be under a government program.
The solution needs to involve bringing down the inflationary pressures on health care. A big part of that will be competition through people actually having their own insurance (which makes being stuck at a job less likely because you have your own instead of depending on your employer) and actually having a price structure to understand what health care costs.
Look at how much Lasik eye surgery has come down in prices. That has happened because of real competition.
The Republicans have a couple decent plans but then what of the people their plans don't help????
I was say that I am a conservative with democratic concerns. I like the concerns that the democrats have but hate their solutions that make things actually worse. I hate the republican. mine, mine, mine, leave my money alone, mine. There are people that need help and while there are conservatives with great solutions the party people itself don't take up the cause because all they care about is other somewhat irrelevant stuff.
IT IS TIME TO END THIS AMERICAN POLITICAL DUOPOLY!!!
Hey wil, thanks for the rant space.
If any of you are huge supporters of one party or the other, I only have a problem with the politicians of the party, not you!
I agree with Kevin on just about everything.
However, drilling for oil is not necessarily the whole solution. We need refineries built to turn the crude oil into gas. Simply having more crude oil will not help lower gas since I can't burn crude in my car. I believe it has been over 20 years since we had a new refinery built.
And taxing the oil companies for making money is absurd. They were losing millions of dollars in the 80s, and now they are recouping some of those losses.
Kevin that's a really good point about the short term and long term fix. I agree totally, people can't exactly turn it all over on a dime and buy a new car even if it were available at a decent price right now. Unfortunately though I wonder if creating the short term fix in building a local refinery here, we only postpone the long term fix of changing over to reusable energy.
I mean think about it this way - suddenly there's this refinery here, in the column for reasons to keep it going we have jobs, and not to mention all the expenses that would need to be recouped from building it and running it. Say we have it a decade and it's still working great, a community developes around it and lives are built, gas prices are decent, people are buying cars again and everyone is happy - does it just shut down then once the auto industry goes green? And furthermore what would be the reason to switch over at that point if no one is feeling a pinch? See what I mean, by creating a short term fix like this it seems to defeat the purpose of the long term fix altogether. People only act when they're uncomfortable.
Everyone is just going to need to suffer through the tough times here while serious steps are taken to change the foundations of the way things are done. Otherwise we just continue enabling our addiction to cheap gas at the expense of the environment, and so much more.
"Everyone is just going to need to suffer through the tough times here while serious steps are taken to change the foundations of the way things are done. Otherwise we just continue enabling our addiction to cheap gas at the expense of the environment, and so much more."
Agree 110% building a refinery will take years to come online to 100% In the mean time people will look to bike commuting, engineers will develop new and more efficient hybrids and people rethink their needs for cars. Short term this sucks, but long term is is good (in general).
I see that nobody responded to my off subject rant. (on subject of politics but off of gas)
That's fair.
I agree with Wil. The question I have about refineries is would new ones be more efficient (energy and in any other way)? If they were, I could agree with refineries, otherwise it just seems to be a big issue of supply and demand. If China and India were suddenly to have a recession, we would see less gas prices because their demand would lessen considerably.
Hmm, we may be on the way to a team Evotri voting bloc here!
Right on!
This is a great post. Outstanding! Death before Hillary (or McCain).
I just want someone in office who seems different. I don't even agree with a lot of what Sen. Obama says...I don't care. I don't want McCain because he will stay loyal to Bush policies. I sure as hell don't want Hillary - who should be in prison for Whitewater IMHO. You know if you or I did that sh*t we'd be in prison. Vote whichever you feel but that is where I stand.
Good on you for talking about it.
Kevin has a point, in fact he has several, all that ethanol and now there is no corn or wheat!
And gas in the UK is about $10 a gallon of which about 65% is tax which goes to the Government, not saying that's bad or good, it just is.
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