Posted on 06/25/2008 8:53:31 AM PDT by Fox_Mulder77
"There are no short-term answers. And I know that there's going to be long-term pain. I predict to you that gas prices will be as much as $5 before the end of this year and they will go to $6 at some point next year," he said during an interview with reporters and editorial writers at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
"When they go to $6 it will fluctuate between $5 and $6 and more for some time to come. That's the harsh reality no matter what law we pass," he said.
"I get tired of hearing people, politicians, friends of mine, Democrats, Republicans, liberal, conservative, all of them telling you they have the answer," said Hastings, serving his eighth term in Congress. "There ain't no answer, OK? ... All the talk is feel good talk."
(Excerpt) Read more at weblogs.sun-sentinel.com ...
A real voice of knowledge and wisdom.
Of course they see no fix, otherwise, they’d be fixing it.
I was just listening to a guy on the radio that said it it cost $7000 up to reopen capped oil wells and start pumping oil. He said that a million barrels could be added to the supply in months if they could get the money. SBA calls the wells speculative and will not loan the money. Congress could act and release money but they will not do that either.
Bush has been the architect of the weak dollar policy, so it is tough to blame the dems on that one. We need to start reversing the dollar trend, which Bush could do if he made it a priority. But drilling more and building nuclear power plants might not have an immediate effect on supply, but it would have an immediate effect on price as it would help deflate the bubble.
blah blah blah, no answer, blah blah blah
I disagree. There is a solution. Take away the gas cards and make Congress pay for their own gas to go back and forth to work like the rest of us have to do.
The Gov wouldn't be getting much tax money to buy votes with.
OR, they see the fix, but don't want to fix it, which I think is the much more likely scenario.
Drill Here, Drill Now.
Isn’t Hastings a crook?
:)I love humor in the morning. :)
they don’t want to fix the problem.
he’s just another moron spouting more greenhouse gases.
Alcee’s answer to high gasoline prices: Get a horse!
What a dork.
You’re absolutley right. Too bad the Republicans have been behind much of the dollar’s devaluation. The fact that Republicans have spent like crazy and not capitalized on this oil issue spells political suicide. It’s a golden opportunity that is more importantly the RIGHT thing to do and they stand back and occasionally offer lip service.
Yes, he’s as intelligent as a box of rocks.
You are right. Those Communists in Congress don’t want to fix the problem — they want this country to collapse so that THEY can pick up the pieces and rule like complete dictators. Before we can deal with the energy crisis, we need to deal with the Communist crisis.
Exactly. It’s so unfortunate that Republicans have sold us out on the dollar, spending, and oil (not to mention illegal immigration and a lot of other issues).
Now that is a good idea. A fuel usage credit. That would perk up their ears wouldn’t it?
Why would a whole group of people, people that have to pay bills and consume energy like everyone else, not want to fix it? That doesn’t make sense.
Come and listen to a story ‘bout a man named Jed
Poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed
Then one day he was shooting at some food
And up through the mud came a bubblin’ crude
(Oil, that is, black gold, Texas tea)
Well the first thing you know Jed thinks he’s a millionaire
But then Congress said, “Hey get away from there!”
Said Cuba’s the only place where drilling out to be
So they put him in a truck bound for the penitentiary
(Jail that is, federal pen, with oil company CEOs)
Well now it’s time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin
They ran out of gas and starved to death, cause Congress did them in
You’re all invited back to this locality
But only if you’re a caribou or you want to plant a tree
(Don’t come back now, ya hear?)
(Michael Ramirez, IBD 6/25/2008)
Wishful thinking on the libs part.
I live in So Jersey and over the past 10 days gasoline prices have DROPPED 3 cents per gallon. It isn’t much but this has happened despite oil reaching new highs. people are simply not driving as much and the gas stations MUSTN sell the gasoline they have to survive.
The laws of supply/demand once again work their magic.
Rather have a political issue than a solution.
The dems could care less about the little guys.
Just look at Mayor Bloomers of NYC. He wants to raise the gas tax. Punish the people for not voting for his congestion pricing.
Could the left be anymore anti-American?
Dollar will strengthen if the Fed ups the interest rates, although that’s not a good idea in the face of a weakening economy.
Just as dumb as he is corrupt. Recall that he is one of the handful of federal judges in American history to be impeached and removed from office.
Well something that would make me feel good and also help a whole range of issues is getting rid of 8 term congressmen. heck get rid of 3 term congressmen too.
Econ 101
as the probablility of a extreme liberal senator becoming president and also having an anti drilling congress, can you blame speculators for predicting that oil will go up. Someone needs to point out in the MSM, that the $1000 tax savings Obama is saying he is gonna help out the middle class with will not cover the xtra amount of gas you will spend in a yr under the enviro wackos.
The dollar will strenghten when the Fed stops messing with the economy and stops printing ludicrous amounts of money into circulation.
It wouldn’t matter to most of them because they are rich. Even the ones that aren’t rich get paid well over $160k a year and have homes or apartments within a few miles of Congress and their offices.
This is coming from a guy who uses a government credit card to buy all of his gas.
Congress doesn't need to pass new laws, it needs to repeal the law of supply and demand.
That said, if Alcee Hastings -- who has less of an understanding of basic economics than my pet pooch -- says it's hopeless, it means it's probably a good time to go short oil and gasoline futures. If prices are dampening demand here, I imagine they're killing demand in India.
From I have been reading, no matter how much oil flows, it bottlenecks at the refineries, which are at full capacity. America needs to build more refineries ASAP, even though it will take years to actually get them on line.
In Arizona it had crept up to 4.15 or 4.17 last week. This week it is down to 4.09 on the high side and 4.03 on the low.
I drove a circuitous route from Charlotte, NC to Chahalis, Wa and back last October through November when crude first hit $98.00/barrel. We logged 6000 miles in 12 days of driving and crossed 14 states end to end (6 of them twice). My wife and I counted in excess of 300 new pumps in various oil fields in Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Kansas, and a few others and only about 2 percent of these wells were pumping! These were only what was visible along the various interstates. From a capitalistic viewpoint that just did not make sense to us unless it has more to do with politics than profits.
It’s not a bottleneck issue, if it was gas stations would be out of gas.
This is a demand driven price increase (in addition to the weak dollar), the US and Asia ramped up their consumption of oil and that’s driving the price up.
A new price floor has been established, we’re never seeing $2.00 a gallon gas again. Any major oil discovery will let OPEC tighten up their produciton.
Or as the free market says, the cure to high prices is high prices. The only way out of it is to use less gas.
I can remember when you could deduct the fuel to get back and forth to work.
That is one way that the RATS raised taxes, they took away the deductions.
I see dead Congress.
Yeah but they are tight with their money. They prefer to send ours. Don’t believe me? Next time they have a pet project come up...ask them to pass the plate.
If we could get some low sulfur crude and get it refined in the refineries that are doing the high sulfur diesel for export we could gain some fuel. More local fuel would mean less import of expensive crude and tend to lower the price.
The congress-critter is full of crap. Plain and simple. I know that’s not the answer he wants to hear, but sometimes you have to hear the things you don’t want to.
You should refer to him by his proper title: Representative and Impeached Federal Judge Alcee Hastings.
Why would the children want to fix the roof if it makes the parents look bad?
You bethcha. He's a dim/crook and he's even been re-elected after being a known dim/crook
In 1981, Hastings was charged with accepting a $150,000 bribe in exchange for a lenient sentence and a return of seized assets for 21 counts of racketeering by Frank and Thomas Romano, and of perjury in his testimony about the case. He was acquitted by a jury after his alleged co-conspirator, William Borders, refused to testify in court (resulting in a jail sentence for Borders).
In 1988, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives took up the case, and Hastings was impeached for bribery and perjury by a vote of 413-3. Voters to impeach included Democratic Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, John Conyers and Charles Rangel. He was then convicted in 1989 by the United States Senate, becoming the sixth federal judge in the history of the United States to be removed from office by the Senate. The vote on the first article was 69 for and 26 opposed, providing five votes more than the two-thirds of those present that were needed to convict. The first article accused the judge of conspiracy. Conviction on any single article was enough to remove the judge from office. The Senate vote cut across party lines, with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont voting to convict his fellow party member, and Arlen Specter voting to acquit.
The Senate had the option to forbid Hastings from ever seeking federal office again, but did not do so. Alleged co-conspirator, attorney William Borders went to jail again for refusing to testify in the impeachment proceedings, but was later given a full pardon by Bill Clinton on his last day in office."
Specter voting to acquit and the Clinton pardon of Hastings co-crook I didn’t know. Thanks!
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