How Does the Price of Gas Effect YOUR budget?

1. Bush grew government more than any government before him. Total government spending grew by 33% in his first term alone.
* Dramatically increased federal control over local schools with NCLB while increasing federal education spending by nearly 61 percent.
* Federalized airport security and created a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security;
* Enacted a $1.5 billion program to promote marriage;
He also passed the Patriot Act (which no, I don't give Obama a pass on).

So there are some examples of Republicans growing government diretly through their actions.

As far as gas pricing goes, I didn't hold Bush responsible and I don't hold Obama responsible - to a degree (although he has seriously f-cked up in some areas here).
Speculators determine the Market Tolerance Price Level. Execs and marketing spin it and test it to see whether the fallout will bring repercussions that will outweigh the price increase. Adjust and repeat formula.

That being said, I think it is ridiculous that Cuba and China can drill a mile off our shore but we can't. But anyone thinking Big Oil doesn't manipulate prices shouldn't be telling others they need to adjust their thinking.

 

The bottom line Trinnity is that the days of cheap oil are over! Cheap flights around Europe are over, I have to deal with that and you have to deal with petrol prices. As Joe pointed out, prices in the UK are twice that of the US and have always been that way. You're acting like a spoiled child: "why should we? why should we?". Well you should, because your government has imposed a corporate socialism on petrol for decades (you are against sharing the cost of things aren't you?).

Do you think other societies don't have old people (hint: Palin's death camps don't exist - we have old people), kids, hot and cold weather, grocery shopping? Do you think that in some way you're "special" and deserve something different? My god, you already have petro-dollar hegemony, this will end in the coming decades and will drive your petrol prices higher still.

The bottom line is that you must change your habits, you won't be re-inventing the wheel, because lots of other people already live like this.

 

One of your problems is the reliance upon infrequent and huge Wallmarts, which require you to travel distances. If you'd kept locally owned shops, you'd have less distance. In this regard, I've little sympathy, it's a hole you dug yourself in. But, if there's a need, local shops will return.

 

Well we consider "living like this" as primitive and a lower quality of life.

You are basically saying Americans need to lower their quality of life.

I'd rather bomb the world into submission and let YOU live the lower quality of life. Why? because I'm an American don't give a (*)(*)(*)(*) about you and your happiness because you are not American.

 

Libs want us to lkive in caves while they maintain their current standard of living

Case in point Al Gore. He is always talking about energy consumption and how we need to cut back

Well I wonder what the light bill is for his house

 

It's a good job that your posts identify you for what you really are; therefore you have little credibility other than a fringe group of individuals, both on this board and in live in general.

And like I said before, it's not like American's couldn't do to lose a few pounds*.

* Few = a freaking lot!

 

I would be happy if Obama would allow US oil companies to drill in the Gulf as other nations are curently doing

 

Yeah, postpone the inevitable and stay behind the alternate energy tech boom which is coming our way.

Great idea!

 

and meanwhile the middele class workers get the usual treatment they get from the left

The only question is will libs use a flat head of phillips head on us this time?

 

I didn't think you had a middle class left? We do, and it's doing well.

 

Obama is wiping us out more and more each day

 

That is because you have effective schools that aren't at the mercy of greedy teachers and administrators who put their own personal financial advancement above the educational benefit of their students.

European schools don't churn out illiterate people not fit to survive in a competitive high tech world.

 

And you think this degredation of the US educational system has happened under Obama. That in 3.5 years, kids have gone to school, left school, got jobs etc...

Lets face facts, this is the fault of both party's.

 

No. The stock markets are doing that, by forcing your companies to pay less and move abroad. The markets do this as they insist upon increasing share price, which is measured quarterly.

I know this isn't as jingoistic as blaming the government, I know "socialists" can't be blamed and I understand that you'd actually have to do more than watch Fox News to understand it. But this doesn't stop it from being true.

 

The only reason comapnies move out of the US is due to the greed of libs wanting more of their profit

The more they tax the more the companies flee

and the more workers who lsoe their jobs

 

No, I blame Democrats in general, not just Obama. Becuase they are the primary enablers of this degredation as they have the most to gain politically from it.

Most Conservatives I know actually either homeschool their children, put their children into private schools or otherwise pass on skills and philosophies that public schools refuse to teach.. like actual reading, writing and arithmetic.

 

Dems are the ones who tell poor inner city parents they can't get a voucher to send their kids to a better school

While those same libs send their kids to the best private schools they can find

 

It's easy to think that way; easy on the brain.

 

Which has nothing to do with politics. Other than the people homeschooling and using private schools have no vested interest in the state school system. Read into that what you will.

 

Keep whining and making excuses all you want but it doesn't change the fact that Americans are the planet's biggest wasters of energy, the most obese, and the most likely to whine about everything that interferes with their profligate lifestyle, as you have so predictably done.
The vast majority of Americans live within spitting distance of a shopping center. If you choose to live in the middle of nowhere, then suck it up and don't complain. The early pioneers didn't whine about it like you do.

 

So blah blah, partisanship, blah blah.

Well done, you're excelling yourself today!

 

Exactly. I find it odd that the guys with the overly romantic notions about those early days, are the ones who now hold a sense of entitlement, while complaining at others for their sense of entitlement.

 

I appreciate your enthusiasm, however, ad hominem attacks won't get you very far. I'm not a fan of "Big Fossil Fuel" nor did I ever claim to be.

 

I didn't shove words into your mouth. You seem to valiantly defend the democratic party and attack the republican party. So would it not be a good assumption that you associate yourself with the democratic party and their beliefs? If it is not, then my apologies. The Democratic party is against drilling in the United States, so pick a side man

Actually we do not. We support honest and fair elections (Democrats do not), we absolutely do not support an over-reaching police state. Conservatives do have a rather aggressive policy on war on terror and perhaps its done with the best efficiency and methods, but it is for the correct reasons.

Remember, the #1 step in having a good argument is knowing your opponent. Seems that you are so unknowledgeable of the republican party, that you resort to asking questions on a forum and public admitting that you really do not know about most issues you argue about.

 

Spoken like a true collectivist. This isn't the 19th century anymore. We shouldn't have to go back to it.