Place the Blame Where it Belongs

People keep blaming President Bush for today's high gas prices. Although there is plenty of blame for the President on some other issues, I believe in this instance the blame is misplaced. Take a look at this article regarding the State of the Union address in January 2001, at which time he urged the Senate to pass a bill allowing drilling in ANWR. He tried again in 2006. The bill was supported by Alaska's two Senators. He's tried to get the useless Congress to approve the building of more oil refineries, but they won't.

If we had begun drilling in ANWR and other domestic sites five or six years ago, would things be different now? There is no way to tell, since Congress shot it all down. The people of Alaska want to drill for oil, it's good for their economy. Why on earth should a bunch of politicians who have never been there tell them they can't? It's ridiculous.

Burt Prelutsky put it quite nicely in his column today when he wrote:

Well, recently, a friend of mine reminded me that just prior to the 2006 election, consumer confidence was unbelievably high; regular gasoline sold for about $2.25-a-gallon; and the unemployment rate was 4.5%.

Since then, consumer confidence has plummeted; gas now costs about a dollar-and-a-half-a-gallon more; unemployment stands at 5%; American homeowners have seen their home equity drop by over a trillion dollars, with one percent of our homes in foreclosure; and, for good measure, the liberals refuse to eliminate earmarks.

It wasn’t all bad news, though. The Democratic-controlled Congress, no doubt in appreciation for what they regarded
as a job very well done, voted to increase their own salaries.

In fact, democrats in Congress would like to increase the federal gas tax by $.50 per gallon. What short memories some people have.