Gas Prices...

Lets take a walk down memory lane. Why is it that in just seven years we have gas prices that seem to benefit only the oil companies. When Bush took office on January 20, 2001, the gas prices on a national average was $1.46/gal. Now, just seven years later we are at $3.29/gal. This is more than 125% increase!! Compounded annually, this represents about a 18% jump each year Bush has been in office.

When Clinton took office on January 20, 1993, the national average gas price was $1.06 per gallon. six and a half years later, the national average gas price had jumped to $1.22, roughly 15% higher. Compounded annually, this represents about a 2% jump each year.

Now ask yourself why prices have taken a steep climb in the last seven years. Can we blame the Iraqi war. The same didn't happen when we declared war in 1990. The problem seems to be once again the Bush administration. We have a group of people that have close ties with the oil companies. There are just too many people in the Bush administration that have their hands in the pants of the oil companies.

When the oil companies tell us that they made BILLIONS in profits over the last year and we have to pay for it, who is getting screwed. Then we have Bush telling the American people that "America is addicted to oil" (State of the Union, January 31, 2006 ) and that his administration was going to help rid us of this addiction:

To break the addiction, Mr. Bush announced new research into clean energy, including pollution-free autos and a push to make ethanol

"Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025," Mr. Bush told a joint session of Congress and a national prime-time television audience.

(via CBS News)

We need to take the next President to task and find a way to help relieve the stress of oil from the American people. We have the technology, but why haven't we created the answer? Bush and his administration helped to destroy America in many ways, the next president will have a long hard task in front of them. That is unless the next President is McCain. Then he will just follow in Bush's footsteps. God help us all if that happens.

With all that said, we are not the country that is paying the highest price for gas. How would you like to pay $4.00/gal. That is what India is paying. Still not the Highest though. Turkey is paying over $7.00/gal. Nice!

Out of Touch...

It is known that President Bush doesn't read the newspaper:

HUME: How do you get your news?

BUSH: I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. In all due respect, you've got a beautiful face and everything.

I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves. But like Condoleezza, in her case, the national security adviser is getting her news directly from the participants on the world stage.

(via Foxnews)

Now during a question and answer session, Bush was asked about the possibility of $4/gal gas and his response:

Q: - What's your advice to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline, a lot of people facing -

THE PRESIDENT: Wait, what did you just say? You're predicting $4 a gallon gasoline?

Q: - A number of analysts are predicting -

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yeah?

Q:-- $4 a gallon gasoline this spring when they reformulate.

THE PRESIDENT: That's interesting. I hadn't heard that.

(Via Alternet)

Watch video at Alternet.

$54...

Mark just emailed me and told me that it took $54 to fill our gas tank today. Fifty-four dollars. How is this OK? The average gas price today (2/29/08) is $3.169. Last month, the average was $2.939 and a year ago it was $2.409. So we have gone up almost a dollar in the last year. Actually it will go up over a dollar (and more) in the next couple of months. Today, the price for a barrel of oil has reached a record high of $103. I remember when it was high at $76 a barrel and that was just last summer. Now are you going to tell me that people's pay rates have been increased as well? I think not. So what is the problem here?

According to Bush, nothing. We are not heading for a recession:

"We've acted robustly and now it's time to determine whether or not this programme will actually work," Bush said, referring to a $168 billion stimulus plan he signed into law this month.

"There's no question the economy's slowed down," he said at a White House news conference. "I don't think we're headed to a recession."

NBC's today show points out that oil and gas prices are up, home sales down, the dollar is down against the Euro. Amazingly the only place that the dollar is up in the world is South Africa and South Korea. We have a war where we are spending millions daily and we are financing this war by borrowing money from other countries. How is this good. To fill our oil tank yesterday cost us $3.49/gal. This is getting out of hand. With one person working (by choice), how are families supposed to survive in this mess?

Mark and I are lucky in that we had a chance to pay off all our bills when we were both working, This cost us some things though. For three years we didn't do anything really. We rarely ate out, we didn't see any movies, we rarely went anywhere or bought anything except the needed essentials. We see the middle class fading away and what remains is the upper class and lower class. How can we keep going like this? How can we have a president that is so delusional that he truly believes that America is doing well? It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of months. Both Mark and I think there will be some sort of major change.