GOP blaming Democrats for high gas prices

[formercia]

I would send you the link for the online video but it has tracking.

Dear formercia,


As you plan your summer road trip, you've had to budget for rising prices at the pump. President Bush is focused on providing practical solutions to energy prices: fair prices at the pump, increased supplies of gasoline, greater fuel efficiency, and new alternative fuels. When it comes to lowering energy costs, all Democrats offer is hot air designed to conceal their long record of supporting higher energy costs for America's families.

Click Here to Use the New Gas Prices Calculator

Watch our new web video to find out how much the Democrat's energy proposals would cost America at the pump.

When you're done watching, use our gas calculator to find out how much more Democrats want you to pay at the pump:

http://www.GOP.com/GasCalculator/

Plug in the make and model of your car, map out your commute or your summer road trip, and find out how much more Democrats plan would cost you. Their agenda of higher taxes and more red tape would mean higher gas prices for you and your family. The average family would pay $955 more a year!

Watch the video and see what a Democrat-controlled Congress would cost you.

When it comes to gas prices, Americans have a choice between President Bush's four-point plan for lowering prices at the pump, or liberal Democrats who consistently choose higher taxes, more regulations, and more dependence on foreign oil over safe exploration within our borders.

Learn more about the Democrat plan for higher energy prices - and take action to stop it.

Sincerely,

Ken Mehlman
Chairman, Republican National Committee

[gratuitous]

1. Is that the best ya got, Mehlman?

I swear, you punch like a girl. And not Hilary Swank, either.

[Nashyra]

5. Where is the campaign picture

of Cheney and the $1.46 gas price stating "Higher gasoline are the result of a poor administration" That would make a great billboard along with "vote Democrat"

[formercia]

11. How about a DNC gas price calculator?

Say, for when Dems controlled Congress and adjusted for inflation. :evilgrin:

[seemunkee]

13. What would it be?

Just curious.

[formercia]

16. I'm sure there is some young turk here

who would love to run with this....

[sui generis]

6. well it works though

because while republicans EXPECT to be delicately raped by corporations this way they can put a name and a face to their frustrations every time they see a fellow American "liberal" or "democrat" to blame for their miserable lives. These people are not known for their intelligence nor their rationality.

The fact of the matter is we haven't built a single new refinery in 30 years and we're essentially manipulating supply and betting futures with refinery supply as a relatively large factor in those long market calls.

Well at least it's good to know that there wasn't any price gouging going on . . . in 1973 or whatever year this panel just investigated.

[Dunvegan]

2. Didn't Candidate Dubya say he'd "Jawbone" OPEC into submission?

...unlike his Democratic opposition?

So, start talking, Blivet. It's your Imperial Executive now, after all.

Bush: All the Power. None of the Responsibility.

[Warpy]

3. Hey, SNAKE, whose party is IN CHARGE???

I guess these shitbags never heard of taking responsibility for their own messes.

[primative1]

4. Down a whole Penny Today ...

Thats not gouging. thats what ya call the "sticky price phenomena" lol

[depakid]

7. LOL - even most Republicans won't fall for that

There's a limit to everyone's stupidity-

[formercia]

14. Obviously, there is no limit to GOP stupidity

by opening themselves up to comparison. They pull some numbers out of their asses and create some bogus 'Calculator'. Unfortunately for them, there is statistical historical data that would refute their claims in any venue.

[bluefish]

8. Let's see they have all three houses

And dems are to blame?

[TheFarseer]

9. I'm not surprised they would say that

but I am surprised at what they used to back up their claim. When has any dem (in this decade) said we need higher gas taxes? That would be political suicide. At least blame environmentalists if you want to fool someone. That is seriously lame propaganda even for them.

[zbdent]

10. Ah, yes . . . the "Dems" defense

A few points -

Reagan killed alternative fuel research in 1981 - right after the SECOND gas crisis to hit . . .

People don't like the idea of living downwind of a nuclear power plant . . . go visit lovely Chernobyl for an example . . . (same could be said of living near hog farms . . .)

Levees are under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers, right? So, funding for levees could not have come from the city of New Orleans, the local government, nor the Governor, right?

Oil companies had record profits in spite of (due to?) damage done by Hurricane Katrina's effect on the oil refineries. Maybe the oil companies could have invested some of their profits from the past three decades in shoring up the levees to protect their refineries?

Gas prices were, what, $1.30 a gallon when the Republicans were screaming about Gore's effect on the price of gas? Brrr . . . the prices might have gone up to $2 a gallon!!!

[mrcheerful]

12. You forgot deregulation and how that allowed 3 businesses to own all

refineries then close most of them leaving a few to make up for the loss.

[Coastie for Truth]

15. I am going to barf!

:rant:

An "electric car" (I am using "electric" in its broadest, most generic, all-encompassing sense of pure electrics like the GM EV and Toyota RAV4EV, the ubiquitous hybrids, and emerging "plug in hybrids", and fuel cells) is going to reduce demand in a world facing:

• Peak oil,
  
• Increasing demand for petroleum in India and China
  
• Increasing hatred for the US in the oil lands (Bush and the PNAC doctrine have failed miserably)
  
• Increasing instability in the oil lands (again, Bush and the PNAC doctrine have failed miserably)
  
• An oil financed/driven re-emergence of Russia as a major power

And reducing domestic demand is the only way to go.

An earlier thread asked --- and :

:rant:

Who killed the electric car?

• Roger "Squeaky" Smith, CEO of the General Motors Corporation
  
  I worked with and interacted with GM people who were his direct reports. There was no motivation to "develop and grow a business" - there was a commitment to show the California Air Resources Board that "it couldn't be done."
  
  
  
• A "Not Invented Here" Mind Set
  
  There was hostility that the "electric car" came from "California tree hugging hippies" and "Left Wing Politicians" and not from "Real mechanical engineers like us "Big Ten Land Grant School Midwestern Engineers."
  
  Make no mistake - the "Big Three" is as localized to the Upper Midwest as the oil industry is localized to Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana engineers.
  
  
  
• A Real Bias Against Electric Cars Per Se
  
  Remember - the GM EV1 was coincident with SUV's. And the image of many was that EV's were for old retirees in retirement communities for getting around the golf course and getting to the Rec Center.
  
  
  
• Too soon
  
  Remember - gas was still relatively cheap, we weren't at war in Iraq and facing "problems" with Iran, and global warming was only apparent to the cognoscenti.
  
  

I think if Toyota or Honda (and only Toyota or Honda - the US manufacturers have lost all credibility on this issue) came out with an electric today - with gasoline at $3.30/gallon, and war in Iraq and instability in Iran and Venezuela hating our guts, and global warming driving storms into our southland - it would sell.

:rant:

The GOP has done nothing to increase the supply of oil (ANWR and tax breaks for new refineries and drilling off of California and Florida ain't worth a pitcher of warm spittle), the GOP has done nothing to placate the oil states, and the GOP has done nothing to conserve (like raising CAFE).

I have only been in alternative, renewable and green energy for 30+ of my 40+ years of working. And IMHO the Bushies have screwed it up royally.

:rant: