Bush Says Little Can Be Done About High Gas Prices

Sierra Times ^ | 4/22/2006 | AP Staff

[FerdieMurphy]

SAN JOSE -- As oil prices hit a record, drivers worried about $3-a-gallon gas and politicians feared the impact on elections, President Bush on Friday acknowledged the pain but seemed resigned to being able to do little about it.

"I know the folks here are suffering at the gas pump," the president said while promoting his competitiveness initiative at the Silicon Valley headquarters of Internet networking company Cisco Systems Inc. "Rising gasoline prices is like taking a _ is like a tax, particularly on the working people and the small-business people."

But to address the immediate problem, Bush offered only a pledge that "if we find any price gouging it will be dealt with firmly."

Bush said that lowering America's dependance on foreign oil imports will help reduce the country's vulnerability to global oil price fluctuations. On Saturday, the president was pushing his proposals to boost spending to develop alternative energy sources, particularly hydrogen-fueled cars.

Critics say Bush's ideas are too modest and focus on solutions that are far from being a reality in the marketplace.

Crude-oil prices broke through $75 a barrel Friday amid concerns about the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions, rebel disruptions of oil production in Nigeria, and tight U.S. gasoline supplies. Analysts say they are likely to climb even higher.

Prices at the gas pump also kept rising and were not considered at their peak, with the average price of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline at $2.855. That's 3 cents higher than a day earlier and more than 60 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA's daily fuel gauge report.

Democratic efforts to score political points by focusing on gas prices have Republicans worried that their majority in Congress could be at risk in the fall midterm elections.

High gas prices were hardly the only problem facing Bush's White House as he embarked on a four-day swing to California and Las Vegas. He was traveling with new chief of staff Joshua Bolten, charged with reinvigorating a White House rocked by public discontent with the Iraq war and a series of missteps ranging from an ill-fated Supreme Court nomination to a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

Bush's poll ratings are at their lowest point. Hundreds of protesters called for his resignation near the Cisco compound where he spoke.

Even his trip put the president squarely in the middle of a federal-state dustup.

Bush decided not to grant the pre-emptive federal disaster declaration sought for California's fragile levees by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who faces a tough re-election fight and has had a chilly relationship with Bush. Instead, the president is allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help speed repairs at the state's expense.

Bush seemed aware of the precarious political landscape.

When Bush turned the microphone at Cisco over to Schwarzenegger, the governor said, "First of all, I want to say congratulations."

"For what?" asked the president, appearing genuinely surprised.

The governor, who had discussed the levee issue during a limousine ride with Bush, replied that he was glad to see the president "really paying attention" to the competitiveness issue.

Afterward, Bush talked privately with scholars from Stanford University's Hoover Institution, including former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a Hoover fellow and early defender of the use of pre-emptive force to deal with Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

Plans to hold the meeting at the Hoover Institution were scuttled when protesters blocked Bush's motorcade from going through the only entrance. Shultz, who was already hosting a private dinner for Bush later at his Palo Alto home, had the session moved to his two-story, gray-shingled house.

One reason for a weekend trip with a lot of downtime in beautiful places became clear even before Bush boarded Air Force One to leave Washington. Crew were seen loading two shiny mountain bikes _ one a red-white-and-blue Trek adorned with the presidential seal and "United States of America." With stays scheduled in picturesque Napa Valley and the Palm Springs area, the bikes weren't likely to remain clean for long.

"Tomorrow I'm going to be riding my bike in Napa Valley. I can't wait," Bush told his Cisco audience.

Before returning to Washington Monday night, Bush was making stops to raise money for the national Republican Party, visit with Marines and Navy sailors, and press Congress to break a logjam over the immigration legislation he wants.

[Coldwater Creek]

Well we live in Tennessee. They just happy here if you don't have your vehicle up on blocks in the front yard.

[lepton]

Your anger has interfered with your memory. President Bush did sign tort reform into law.

He also got part of his energy bill through...it's just that it's about 5 years late.

Further, he's being thoroughly undermined in foreign policy, thus his ability to tell nations like Iran to knock it off results in escalating rhetoric rather than compliance or quiet negotiations.

[hgro]

A bit of advice to users of gasolene.

1. Drive at the speed limit or below.
2. Drive only when absolutely neccesary.
3. Keep the keys away from Junior.
4. Walk to do your errands, Its good for you.
5. Don't buy from Exxon Mobil

[brwnsuga]

I voted for him twice too, but he seems to really be screwing up lately what with gas and illegal immigration..... I still like him as a person, though

[lepton]

I doubt there is a link to this. I remember hearing it and seeing HW Bush saying this on c-span in the late 1980s or early 1990s when he was president.

You got it precisely backwards. Gore wanted that, and Bush attacked him for it...and the media attacked Bush for attacking Gore for it.

[Alberta's Child]

The Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gassett offered some remarkable insight into the human mind in his classic essay from the 1930s about the Communist uprisings across Europe, "The Revolt of the Masses." His basic premise was that an increasingly complex world would become increasingly hostile to democratic rule, since fewer and fewer people would be capable of understanding how things work even as these people became increasingly educated and competent in their own specific lines of work. The problem with these "modern barbarians," as he called them, was that the line between the natural and man-made world becomes hazy to them, and they eventually see the complex world around them as nothing more than an extension of the natural world.

"Their response to a bread shortage," he said, in describing the irrational thought processes that would eventually come to dominate a society filled with such people, "is to burn down the bakery."

[lepton]

I feel like I'm going mad.

C'mon! Your reading comprehension is usually pretty good. What happened this time? Where'd he say anything even remotely like the headline?

[texastoo]

I agree with your post. It is discouraging. No, this won't hurt me that much either. But this will hurt a lot of people.

It is depressing to hear Bush make the statement that Americans are addicted to oil. This statement is comparable to "Bush and Congress are addicted to American taxpayer money". The odds are you can't have one without the other. Both congress and Bush need to get to work finding ways to cut the cost of gasoline.

Your suggestions are great.

[dirtboy]

I heard that 75% of the sheeple are upset with Bush because he's not doing enough to curb gas prices. I guess they think our economy is modeled after France's or China's, where the government controls the markets.

Actually, there is something that can be done. Get rid of all the damn reformulations - a lot of the price problems in the East are due to a shortage of ethanol since they don't use MTBE any longer.

They got rid of the special mixes after Katrina, and they need to do the same now.

[MinuteGal]

I did not base my comments on the headline at all.

Leni

[kabar]

You know, when this first happened in 2000, two things were said. Then candidate Bush said he would call his friends the Saudi's to turn the taps on

I think you are confusing Bush with Kerry in 2004. It was Kerry who said that Bush had those connections and should use them. Please provide the source for your assertion that Bush said this in 2000.

Limbaugh said that Clinton with the stroke of a pen could remove the federal taxes on gas as well as drop the additive expectations with both actions lowering cost.

Again, I don't know where you are getting this quote from. Congress levies taxes, so the President alone cannot abolish the federal tax on gasoline.

Was that call made to his friends and why hasn't the stoke of a pen happened?

I don't know, but the Saudis have increased production, which does increase supply. Demand has also been increasing driven primarily by China and India. The idea that any President can lower the price of a global commodity like oil is nonsense.

We import 60% of our supply and the amount of imported oil will continue to increase unless we find an alternative solution. It has to be a multipronged approach: Conservation, finding new domestic oil deposts, alternative energy (including nuclear), and decreased regulation. It will be a long term approach. In the meantime, high oil prices will be a fact of life.

[Fighting Irish]

I voted for him twice too, but he seems to really be screwing up lately what with gas and illegal immigration..... I still like him as a person, though

I love boxing.....

...and there's nothing more frustrating than to watch a good fighter dominate the bout then start making stupid mistakes near the end.....give up and give the fight away.

From my chair that what this looks like.

[texastoo]

As I said, this was during tshe HW Bush administration. Gore and Clinton both were unknowns except in their own little states. Check out your local library archives and look it up.

[lepton]

They don't need to lower the price of something that's in demand. I'm starting to agree with another poster (possibly on another gasoline thread) who said that Freepers' grasp of economics wasn't all that solid.

...Or their use of "They" is indescriminate. :)

Car companies don't care how much gas we use. Niether the government or the oil companies (directly) determine car prices. All may use the pronoun "They".

[Coldwater Creek]

I knew what you were saying!!

[barnswallow]

"This screams for using this to drill and anwar and approve new refineries.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Haven't heard it mentioned recently, have you?"




It is true that environuts and their paid ho's in congress (primarily democrats but a fair number of RINOs as well) deserve a huge share of the blame for the mess we are in (blocking refineries and drilling)--BUT--why are the oil industry and its allies strangely silent on this issue; they are allowing the enviros sole use of the megaphone. After all, the oil companies are so flush with cash compared to sierra club etc. that it would be possible for the oil companies--via an agressive advertising and lobbying blitz--to sweep aside much of the enviro objection to oil exploration and refinery building--IF THE OIL INDUSTRY CHOSE TO DO SO. I suspect that that the American oil industry considers the enviros useful idiots--as it is the excuse that oil refineries cannot be built or offshore drilling take place because of environmental regs which is keeping the price of oil HIGH! If your enemy is helping you to make a big profit, why stand in his way. If you made your living selling diamonds--a scarce resource found mostly in Africa with huge markup, the last thing you would want is for some upstart to find a motherlode of diamonds in the USA. That would depress the price of diamonds big time. If some anti-diamond group was preventing that upstart from mining for domestic diamonds, you'd be all for that anti-mining group. Oil is no different. Think about it; the advertising and lobbying muscle of the oil industry (as muscular as Charles Atlas) vs the advertising and lobbying muscle of the envirowhackos (as scrawny as Woody Allen). Combine that with the best Congress money can buy. Yet the oil industry is not taking advantage of this muscle. Strange, huh?

[lepton]

Even if the president believes this, it isn't a constructive sound-bite to come out of his mouth, imo

What isn't? If you mean the headline, he didn't write it, and there's no quote in the body to support it.

[joesbucks]

Sorry, it wasn't the Saudi's it was opec to be called: During the 2000 Presidential election campaign, Gov. George W. Bush promised to take on the OPEC cartel on behalf of American consumers. Bush said:

“I think the president ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say, ‘We expect you to open your spigots.’ … The president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price.” [Financial Times, 2/2/00]

[TheWriterTX]

Long before the days of car seats, booster seats, air bags, and the like, my Mom packed 5 of us into her Chevy Nova (for a total of 6 in a standard sized car). So long as everyone had a seat-belt on, we were good to go.

Back then, 5 children was the average on my block. Almost every family had 5. Now, we consider 3 a "large family."

My, how times have changed!

And yes, we made the choice to accept children lovingly from God. I'm fortunate enough to have a job where I am the boss and can work from home when I need to, so I do. That has cut our gasoline bills significantly!

[kabar]

Sad for me to say, but I think you are right here. Where is a leader who says, "Whoa, hold it, this America, we can do anything we find the will to do. We are Americans , we are problem solvers. Here is where we start..."

The best thing government can do is to get out of the way and let market forces find the solution. It has been government that has limited domestic exploration, imposed onerous regulatory restrictions and processes that make it difficult to build refineries, nuclear plants, etc., and created, by state, different boutique fuel blends that hinder distribution and refining. Despite all this, the US has the cheapest gas in the the developed world.

NIMBY (Not in my backyard) has morphed into BANANA (Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anybody). Americans want cheap energy but are not willing to make the changes necessary to deal with the fact that worldwide demand for oil is increasing faster than supply. Our supply cushion is getting smaller, which makes any disruption in supply to be felt immediately.