Thursday - September 22, 2005

Stupid Democrat Tricks

Democrats in Congress are smelling blood over high gasoline prices. They’re about to start hammering President Bush for failing to keep gas prices down. Their plan is to go after the oil companies and slap penalties on them for so-called “windfall profits”. They claim (see below) that oil companies are “profiting handsomely to the tune of $7 billion a month”. What they don’t tell you is the federal government is making $10 billion per month off of gas taxes. Yep, you read that right.

The Feds charge 18.7 cents per gallon and your state charges another 14-30 cents per gallon, depending on where you live. For example: if you live in Colorado (that would be you, OldCatMan), you pay 18.7 cents to Washington, 18 cents to Denver plus a 6% state sales tax and 1.25% county, plus additional local sales taxes and 1.2 cents per gallon state UST fee. If you removed all the taxes from that $3.00 per gallon gas you just bought, you’d be paying only about $2.00 per gallon or less. In New York, in addition to the 18.7 cents for the Feds, you’re paying 31.9 cents per gallon to the state, 8.3 cents to your county and 6.7 cents per gallon in sales tax. All so Hillary can live in a million-dollar mansion. Get the picture?

The truly sensible (and honest) thing for the Democrats in Congress to offer us in this mess would be to cut gas taxes in half temporarily.

Read that sentence again.

I can’t believe I actually wrote that. Dang! I crack myself up sometimes. I actually used “Democrats”, “Congress”, “cut taxes”, “honest” and “sensible” in the same sentence. It must be a defective keyboard ....

Congress Watch: Democrats Seek Mileage From Gas Prices
WASHINGTON (US NEWS)

With President Bush’s approval ratings straining under the weight of the troubles in Iraq and his administration’s initially stuttering response to Hurricane Katrina, Democrats smell blood and have embarked on a campaign to link the high price of gasoline to Republican inaction or ineptness. It’s a reprise of the old political imperative of “kick ‘em when they’re down.”

Lamenting the recent spikes in the cost of gasoline and the potential of more-costly home heating oil this winter, Democrats have introduced legislation in the House and the Senate they say will reduce prices and stop what they regard as price gouging by oil companies. In one piece of proposed legislation, the government will take money from oil companies and return it to consumers.

“We have introduced legislation dealing with the recapture of what we consider to be windfall or excess profits by the oil industry,” North Dakota Democrat Sen. Byron Dorgan said Tuesday. “The major integrated oil companies are profiting handsomely to the tune of $7 billion a month extra excess windfall profits, and . . . we believe some of that should be recaptured and returned as a rebate to the consumers in this country.”

A second bill, sponsored by Washington State Democrat Maria Cantwell, would make price gouging a federal offense, punishable by heavy fines. House Democrats will this week introduced similar legislation on the other side of the Capitol. “It’s a huge problem and we need to do something about it,” says Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

With only 35 percent of Americans telling pollsters that they approve of Bush’s handling of the economy, Democrats sense an opening and have attempted to blame the GOP for not doing enough to deal with the price hikes. “What’s the response of the president? What’s the response of the Congress?” Dorgan asks. “We’ll just sleep through it all; things’ll be just fine in the morning. They’re not going to be just fine for folks in my part of the country, coming into winter when they’re told they have to pay a 70 percent increase in natural gas prices. That’s a disaster. And we need to do something about it.”

High gas prices always lead to high-stakes politics, and there is no mistaking the politics here. With Republicans in control of the White House and both houses of the legislature, Democrats calculate that an angry voter backlash because of high gas prices will hurt the GOP and could affect the 2006 midterms, which are a mere 13 months away.

“The people have a right to be furious about this in this country,” says Dorgan. “They want to know who’s on their side, who’s willing to stand for them.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/22/2005 at 03:49 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2008 Domain Owner