Posted by
RICK From Fort Washington on Sunday, August 24, 2008 9:32:30 PM
What I find amazing is here we are four years after the Swift Boats for Truth(where are they by the way) and still the ptactic of divide and distract is effective as ever on the American people. Gasonline prices go to $4.00 nationally due to price of oil per barrel hitting $140+ per barrel and conservative conclude in order to lower prices we need to Drill Here, Drill NOW the Hannity solution, sounds good has a nice tone but absolutely no substance. The proof is when the President can come out and say we need to start drilling offshore and the price per barrel drops $20 dollars over the next few months should indicate to everyone that price was inflated due to speculation not supply and demand. Now why is this little fact so critical because with Oil Companies making record profits NOW! not when the start drilling offshore, not one conservative or for that matter liberal have asked the question how are they making record profits now, without this proposal. It's simple the cost to produce and refine oil has not changed over the past 7 years, nor has the demand in America increased(the number 1 consumer of oil worldwide not Asia) Yet oil companies can sell through futures contracts the price at the current market price v what they produce the oil for. In other words if the market price is $140 and it cost $20.00 to produce and refine the oil they would pocket the difference $120.00 not the 15% marketing and admin. number you here right-wing talk show host distort you with. I am all for Oil companies or any other company maximizing their profits for the shareholders, executives and employees of the company but this is not about maximizing profits or whether this is good or bad business, this is about POLITICS. What this administration wants you to believe is that Oil Companies that sit on a combined 68 million acres in leases they have drilled very little on will all of a sudden spend billions of their own money to drill off-shore for potential oil revenue that would equal what they are making now, FOOLS GOLD no executive in America would do this unless one caveat was met, you guessed it, the American taxpayer pay for them to drill in the name of national soverienty, thats right boys and girls this is about you paying to feel that you a getting oil from America not Saudi Arabia. Now how much are you willing to pay Oil companies to speculate on your behalf, so you can feel better, for me the answer is $0(ZERO) thats right nothing, nada, I can not believe people are falling for this nonesense to eventually pay billionaires because of an ill conceived philosophy that America would be less dependent on foreign oil. We are not dependent NOW, again we choose to be dependent because its Profitable. The solution to this is raise the taxes on oil imports from OPEC, thats right raise taxes on imports this would for oil companies to drill on the leases they currently control and then explore offshore drilling, this would force the oil companies to be competiive again with each other therefore lowering our prices at the pump.
In order for this to happen people must wake up to the realities of business and politics and stop listening to a bunch of mindless right-wingers who sing you the same song and dance to push the agenda forward, even at YOUR EXPENSE!