Finally! The message is getting through that Congress is not doing anything about the high price of oil:
Americans rate price gouging by the oil companies, price gouging by foreign oil producers, and a lack of effective action by Congress as the most important reasons why the price of gasoline is so high -- essentially equating congressional inaction with price gouging.The House Republicans should milk this for all it's worth because their message resonates with the American voters. We are tired of the Congress tying the hands of the oil companies and want them to be able to drill off-shore (and if anyone wants to point to the fact that they are not using the leases they have right now, don't worry about it, the leases run out in ten years, they'll lose them if they don't use them). It's about time the Democrats and Republicans work together to pass a bipartisan bill that covers all the bases: incentives for new forms of energy, incentives for technological advances in the automobile industry, as well as speeding up the legal process for drilling and opening up more areas to drilling.
BTW, yeah, I know that they also blame Bush (maybe they want him to call Congress back in session to do something about the crisis :-), price gouging by the oil companies (I guess they don't realize that the oil companies don't set the price), consumers (well, that one makes sense) and the increased demand from China and India (which is another message that I'm glad is getting out there -- the Republicans need to hit that one more because the demand from those countries will only increase over time and we need to start drilling now to offset future prices as well as encourage development in other sources of energy).
Another btw, there is not enough blame assigned to "too many environmental regulations" (it only received 40%). The environmentalists are one of the chief causes for the lack of domestic drilling. They are the reason that Pelosi is hanging tough on drilling. They're her base and she's not going to tick them off.
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That's what I'd want.
Not only for environmental reasons. Not only for price reasons. But for something we can rely on. Something we can make for ourselves. Wouldn't it be nice to have other countries send money to US for something we made through our innovation and our sweat rather than continuing to send cash to other countries to do things for us?
interesting to see that you've finally given in and put your trust in polls now, michele.
another interesting thing is that the gallop poll follows fairly closely to a similar poll by cnn/opinion research a few days ago. but they took it one step more and came up with these results:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX 68% u.s. oil companies
XXXXXXXXXXXXX 65% foreign oil countries
XXXXXXXXXXX 57% speculators
XXXXXXXXXXX 56% demand from other countries
XXXXXXXXXX 54% bush administration
XXXXXXXXXX 51% war in iraq
XXXXXXXXXX 51% ban on offshore drilling
XXXXXX 31% democrats in congress
(cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/31/poll.gas.blame/index.html)
so, while a majority blames congress (and the iraq war, and bush, and demand, and speculators, and price gouging) only a small minority think that democrats are to blame. bring it on. republicans are tightening the noose around their own necks here. add to that mccain's ridicule of obama's conservation tips and then his back peddling a couple of days later only to praise the idea of proper tire pressure himself makes him (and you) look foolish.
Anonymous, I wouldn't take too much comfort from those numbers. Remember, just a few months ago, the majority of people opposed offshore drilling. Right now, about 70% of the people want us to increase domestic oil supply, including drilling on the OCS and ANWR. Because Nancy Pelosi shut down Congress for 5 weeks rather than allow a vote for drilling, the Republicans now have the next month or so to hammer into the public consciousness that it is the Democrats who are keeping gas prices high. I think by Labor Day, the Dems in Congress will be seriously worried about the political price they will pay for following Nancy's lead.
As far as looking foolish, who looks more foolish - McCain for agreeing that it is a good idea to have your tires properly inflated (but not agreeing that it would save as much gas as Obama claimed), or Obama for making the ludicrous claim that inflating your tires will save more oil than would be produced by drilling? Now Obama is reduced to trying to make the even more ridiculous claim that he meant it would save more oil than would be produced by drilling where McCain was standing at the time.
Anonymous, I wouldn't take too much comfort from those numbers. Remember, just a few months ago, the majority of people opposed offshore drilling. Right now, about 70% of the people want us to increase domestic oil supply, including drilling on the OCS and ANWR. Because Nancy Pelosi shut down Congress for 5 weeks rather than allow a vote for drilling, the Republicans now have the next month or so to hammer into the public consciousness that it is the Democrats who are keeping gas prices high. I think by Labor Day, the Dems in Congress will be seriously worried about the political price they will pay for following Nancy's lead.
As far as looking foolish, who looks more foolish - McCain for agreeing that it is a good idea to have your tires properly inflated (but not agreeing that it would save as much gas as Obama claimed), or Obama for making the ludicrous claim that inflating your tires will save more oil than would be produced by drilling? Now Obama is reduced to trying to make the even more ridiculous claim that he meant it would save more oil than would be produced by drilling where McCain was standing at the time.
"Because Nancy Pelosi shut down Congress for 5 weeks rather than allow a vote for drilling,"
congress was going into recess regardless, it wasn't a "one or the other" option. democrats put a vote on the floor to allow more drilling. republicans shot it down.
"the Republicans now have the next month or so to hammer into the public consciousness that it is the Democrats who are keeping gas prices high. I think by Labor Day, the Dems in Congress will be seriously worried about the political price they will pay for following Nancy's lead."
not likely. if you paid attention, you'd notice that democrats in vulnerable (i.e. red) states and states where oil production is a big part of the local economy are supporting more drilling. most democrats support drilling on existing leases. pelosi will not suffer from her constituents - they don't support offshore drilling because they've lived with the environmental consequences. according to a recent rasmussen poll,
looks like most people are against the stonewalling of congressional republicans.
"As far as looking foolish, who looks more foolish - McCain for agreeing that it is a good idea to have your tires properly inflated (but not agreeing that it would save as much gas as Obama claimed), or Obama for making the ludicrous claim that inflating your tires will save more oil than would be produced by drilling?"
yeah, that would still be mccain (and michele, and you), because he ridiculed the entire idea, and not any amount of gasoline that it might conserve. besides:
(from time magazine)"Now Obama is reduced to trying to make the even more ridiculous claim that he meant it would save more oil than would be produced by drilling where McCain was standing at the time."
it's called "political humor" and he's ridiculing the "drill everywhere" meme of the Gas and Oil Party. every time i hear one of those silly oil-drilling fundamentalists chant their little bumpersticker slogan, i imagine them frollicking through our national forests with oil wells sprouting up from their footsteps behind them. give me a break.
i can tell you from personal experience of growing up with an oil well on the back 5 acres of my property, the "drill everywhere" idea is ridiculous - it's loud 24x7, it stinks, and it's dangerous with kids around. people will not want that landscape, no matter what the cost of a barrel of oil is. so, i get the humor, sorry if it's lost on you.
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