Gasoline prices have climbed above $4 per gallon for regular at too many places across the nation. We know this because President Barack Obama has embarked on a four-day blitz to demonstrate his concern for high gasoline prices. Posted on 03/24/2012 7:33:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
Gasoline prices have climbed above $4 per gallon for regular at too many places across the nation. We know this because President Barack Obama has embarked on a four-day blitz to demonstrate his concern for high gasoline prices.
According to the U.S Energy Information Administration the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the country is $3.87 which is up about 30 cents from a year ago.
The highest prices are on the West Coast at $4.23. The lowest, next door in the Rocky Mountain region at $3.62.
Unemployment numbers are largely theoretical. At 8.3 percent (or 14.9 percent if you'd rather use the underemployed rate) we care more about whether it's going up or down. Either everyone in our family who wants job has one, or they don't.
Gasoline prices are different. Everyone with a car or truck has to fill his her or his tank on a regular basis. They know pretty much to the nearest dollar how much it should cost. When it costs more dollars, they notice. It is not theoretical, it is actual cash off the debit card.
Rising gasoline prices are a regressive tax on poorer Americans. They affect most those who can afford higher prices least.
My car has a 20 gallon tank. I generally fill it when I have about a quarter of a tank left. That means I need about 15 gallons about every two weeks. 30 gallons a month.
At $3.50 per gallon it will cost $105 per month for me to drive a normal pattern not counting trips to visit family and friends out of town.
At $4.00 per gallon I will spend $120 per month - 15 dollars more.
For me that is one fewer tall no-whip Starbucks mochas per week. Four morning mochas instead of five per week and I'm just about even.
But, for people on a fixed income or working at a close-to-minimum-wage job who are stretching the check to reach the end of the month is a struggle in the best of times. That $15 dollars is a big FIFTEEN dollars. It might well mean, not one fewer Starbucks a week, but one fewer meal for the family per week.
If I were advising the Republican National Committee - which I am not - I would be looking for a struggling family in every state, maybe in every Congressional district to tell the story of what $4 gasoline means to them. How they have to buy gas to get to work. They are trapped by higher prices.
I guarantee you if there were a Republican President the DNC would be doing just that.
This Administration has made some very bad bets that have made lowering prices more difficult.
Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu is a PhD and Nobel Prize winner in physics. He has been focused like a laser on ridding the nation, and the world, from the yoke of fossil fuels for cars and trucks by moving America's fleet to battery-powered vehicles.
There are 250 million cars and light trucks on America's highways. Even if we could get a million Americans to purchase a battery-powered car, that would amount to 1/250th of the fleet or four tenths of one percent.
Not exactly a game changer.
Not only that, but you have to have additional electricity production to have something in the socket when those million battery-operated cars are plugged in. In order to do that, without increasing the use of natural gas or coal, the Administration promoted more nuclear powered generation plants.
Nothing wrong with that on its face, but the Tsunami in Japan last year made it far more difficult to move out smartly on that front - at least for now.
Solar power and wind farms are pleasant thoughts as alternative sources, but (a) you have to build them somewhere where people aren't; (b) you have get the electricity from where they are to where it is needed; and, (c) the wind doesn't always blow, nor does the sun always shine.
So, battery-powered cars may have been a bad bet. After planning to sell 10,000 Chevy Volts in 2011, General Motors admitted it sold only about 6,200. As 2012 opened, Chevrolet had to bite bullet and shut down the Volt assembly line for at least five weeks until inventories are sold off.
I'm not cheering for the demise of battery-operate cars, but they are not a solution to $4 gasoline any time in the foreseeable future.
President Obama is correct when he says there is "no silver bullet" to quickly bring down gasoline prices. Fair or not, the guy behind that big desk in the Oval Office gets the blame.
This time, it's Barack Obama.
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Gasoline prices are werewolves or members of the Cavendish gang?
Cavendish gang = Lone Ranger nemesis.
I have to start doing that too - I’ve got some sticky label stock paper around. (covertly so the clerks watching the pump cameras don’t see :)
I drive over 1,000 miles per week - I’m filling up at various gas stations all over the place 5 days a week...well, not in NY or CT...when I’m in those states I fill up before I leave and pray I can get back to fill up near me.
The tone here is entirely wrong, too apologetic / “excuse me.” The point is certainly that high gas prices were a huge contributor to the last/ongoing recession that started in late 2007, although all eyes have always been focused on the bank troubles of 2008. It was the gas prices that blew the hole in the economy that led to a lot of the mortgage defaults, etc. Obama had every opportunity to recognize and work on solving that for the past four years, because reality-based solutions are apparent all around. He opted for fantasy and cronyism instead of reality. He failed. He’s incompetent.
He only “failed” if his goal is not to destroy The Great Satan.
How to Make Sticky Note Pads
By Carl Hose, eHow Contributor
Sticky note pads contain handy little notes you can peel away and stick anywhere, making it easy to leave yourself reminders. You can make your own version of these handy notes yourself, using nothing more than the word processor you probably already own, reusable glue and colored paper. Making your own custom sticky notes can be both fun and cost effective.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5886772_make-sticky-pads.html
Hey there voter!
Do you remember that on Inauguration Day (Jan. 20th) 2009, the national average for a gallon of gasoline was about $1.78? How’s that “Hope & Change” working out for you?
Anyone but Obama
Nov. 2012
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2012/03/photo-gas-pump-sticky-note-campaign.html
Read more: How to Make Sticky Note Pads | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5886772_make-sticky-pads.html#ixzz1q2yDCu4k
On the average, a post-it note is removed withing hours, a pre-printed label stay up for weeks or longer.
I don’t worry/care if anyone sees me putting them on. I use easily and cleanly removable stock, if anyone ever objects they can simply peel them off.
I’ve even had a gas station owner ask for a dozen labels to put on his own pumps!
We need to talk about the price of food. Steaks at $20 a pound in grocery stores...
It’s harder for lying liberals to artificially manipulate food prices than gasoline prices.
The MSM is carrying this story about gas prices - that MEANS Obama will be able to get his friends in the ME to drop prices for the election.
No, Rush was right when he said " I hope he fails". We're the ones who failed - failed to stop him. He's right on pace to accomplish his lifelong goal--to bring down "arrogant America".
To paraphrase BHO - Under my plan, energy costs will, out of necessity, skyrocket.
Their bets are paying off EXACTLY as intended.
How great is that! A gas station owner who is fighting back!
I don’t know why these gas stations - especially the independent ones - aren’t shouting from the mountaintops about these prices - they should at least have the run down on the profit margins of all entities that have their paws in a gallon of gas.
I talked to one in CT last week and he said he’s making 3 cents a gallon (people think the stations are gouging too - they aren’t) CT state tax is huge! Then there’s the Fed taxes - Environmental stuff - the cut to the distributor-manufacturer, etc.
Hmmm, maybe another sticker or sign with a rundown of what percentage/dollar amount goes to what...
(percentage would be better-a dollar run-down would have to be changed twice a day)
Gas prices are easy to manipulate. AND the MSM is running with the gasoline price story. They NEVER run stories that help us. Put all that together and it means Obama thinks he can get his friends in the middle east to drop oil prices to help with his election.
After the election - if Obama wins - gas prices will go through the ceiling..
So put up stickers - but maybe include a comment about high food prices while you’re at it. “It’s not just gasoline - food prices too’ - or something like that... Steak at COSCO was over $19 a pound last week.
High food prices are part of the horror. Dems will NOT be able to manipulate food prices.
Check this out if you want to see how elite members of the media work to help Obama. New York Times boys in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBFOmUXR080
Maybe a 35% minimum margin requirement (MMR) to trade in petroleum product futures will get most of the "make a fast buck" speculators out of the market and result in lower, more sane pricing for gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, heating oil, natural gas, and so on.
You’re kidding me!
We all have to tag our pillows because of California but - oh no - don’t inform consumers about the breakdown of costs! *thud*
(OK - then post those stickers sneakily:)
It’s no longer illegal here. That pesky 1st Amendment...
I will GLADLY pay $4.00 a gallon if it MEANS Obozo is GONE! It is a price worth paying.
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