$4.00 For A Gallon Of Gas And Retro Nancy Pelosi - Not A Pretty Combo

Driving around the Tampa Bay area today I was struck by the fact that it seems as if the price for a gallon of regular gas has gone up a dime in just the past day or so. The area average price is about $3.95 a gallon. It is probably a safe assumption that the average price of gas is more than $4.00 a gallon in many places in the United States, months before the heavy summer driving season begins along with its traditionally higher gas prices.

This $4.00 or so a gallon is more than double what it was when Obama became President (up about 124%). It is up 76% since Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic Representatives took over the House of Representatives in 2007 and Harry Reid and his Democratic Senators took over the Senate.

This leads us to review the following statistics that we have already reviewed in this blog:

1. Over the past five years (2007 through 2011), the Democrats have controlled the House of Representatives for four years and the Republicans have controlled it for one year.
2. Over the past five years, the Democrats have controlled the Senate for all five years.
3. Over the past five years, the Democrats controlled the White House for three years and the Republicans controlled the White House for two years.
4. Thus, in total, over the past five years, the Democrats have controlled the bodies of government 80% of the time and Republicans have controlled the bodies of government 20% of the time.

Which is a roundabout way to get to a five year old Nancy Pelosi press conference. That press conference, and her own words, can be reviewed at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbzzeuYJteY

I find the video interesting for the following reasons:

• Pelosi is lamenting the fact that the price for gas has gone from $1.47 to $3.05 and lambasting the Bush administration for not having a comprehensive energy plan.
• This increase is about 107%, which is a smaller increase than what has happened from when Obama took office to today (124%).
• Pelosi proclaims that July 4, 2007 will be Energy Independence Day, a day that has yet to arrive in America, five years after she proclaimed it.
• Back at this 2007 press conference, Pelosi talks about removing tax breaks from oil companies, much like Obama discusses today, a move that makes no sense today like it made no sense in 2007. Think about the logic of Pelosi and Obama: if the oil companies are less profitable, as a result of a higher tax expense, it will make oil and gas prices go down. Stupidity.
• She also talks about growing alternative sources of energy in 2007. Five years later, we are really not much closer to making alternative energy sources a viable alternative in this country. Instead, we have had pathetic failures of government energy programs (e.g. Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, and Cash For Caulkers) and pathetic failures of Federal government investments of taxpayer money in alternative energy companies (e.g. Solyndra, Beacon, Evergreen, ENER1, Spectra, Fisker, Tesla, The Chevy Volt, and more) at a cost of billions of dollars.
• In 2007, Pelosi wanted to spend more of our energy dollars in the Midwestern United States vs. the Middle East. However, five years later, we still import about half of our petroleum from other countries and as a result, our high energy costs are driven by tensions in the Middle East, not our Midwest.

Thus, despite Pelosi's blaming the Bush administration for high gas prices in 2007, five years later, with the Democrats in charge of 80% of the Federal government since then, we are no better off today than we were back then. And the bad news for the Democrats, if history is any guide, 124% increase is not the peak of the price curve.

As with every other Pelosi assertion and effort, and the failure of just about any Obama program or project, the promises from 2007 to implement a coherent and comprehensive national energy policy are still nowhere to be found. From an unbiased perspective, i.e. not as a politician, and looking just at the data, both members of the political class (Democrats and Republicans) are both to blame for high gas prices and the lack of a strategy for energy.

Starting with the oil shocks and embargoes back in the mid 1970s, both the Democrats and Republicans have been in charge of the Senate, the House, and the White House at various points in time. None of them have been capable of putting together an energy plan.

For Pelosi to blame the Bush administration for a smaller increase in gas prices and not blame Obama for the larger increases in gas prices is pure hypocrisy.

For Pelosi to blame the Bush administration for not having a national energy program and not blame herself or Obama, more than three years into his term for not having a national energy program, is pure hypocrisy.

Since the Bush administration did not take a coherent Clinton administration national energy program (there was no program) and destroy it, for Pelosi to blame the Bush administration, and not the Clinton administration, for not having a national energy program is pure hypocrisy.

But hypocrisy is what we should expect from Pelosi since she is a lifetime politician. Bush, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, et al have all proven that politicians are incapable of solving this problem, possibly because all of them spend more time and energy trying to stay in office rather than solving problems while in office. This perversion of our political processes is probably fed by the need to accept campaign donations from every entity possible, including oil companies (remember that the largest recipient of BP's political campaign funding in 2008 was Obama).

So, that is why $4.00 a gallon and Nancy Pelosi are not a pretty combo. We have not seen the height of gas prices yet in 2012 and given that after five years of trying, Pelosi, Reid, and Obama have been total failures in every aspect of the energy field, there is virtually no chance of them solving our energy problems going forward.

Maybe they should have reviewed the solution to our energy problems as proposed by the United States of Purple Presidency drive:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-presidency_09.html

This solution would reduce our consumption of foreign oil sources, would improve our energy consumption relative to what may or may not be a valid global warming situation, and would do so without giving a larger and larger proportion of our money and wealth to the political class. Energy independence, cleaner energy, and minimal additional cost to consumers, a combo that is certainly better than the debilitating $4.00 a gallon of gas and retro Nancy Pelosi combo.


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The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

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