Posted by
GunnyG© on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 5:20:38 AM
On 8 May 1979, the Great Communicator gave a speech about Senator Metzenbaum of Ohio talking energy policy during the horrible days of the Carter reign. Guess what this liberal was bleating about? He was whining about the horrible oil companies, their excessive profits, and that the only way to rectify this unfair situation is to slap a huge windfall tax on them. Sound familiar? Tax and spend. It's ALL the liberals know what to do. Uber-lib Metzenbaum then regurgitated some pablum about all of the evil oil stocks on Wall St, blah, blah, blah. In this speech, the oilman (Ronnie does not ID him) pointed out all of the companies who made MORE profits and had larger market shares than the oil industry! Metzenbaum's reply is a typical liberal spew. "Yeah, but that's different. The oil industry is a monopoly." Reagan sattes that he started laughing just about the same time as the oilman himself cracked up at the ludicrous comment.
Here is the crux of the difference between them and us. Reagan researched the information for his speech, doing what liberals fail to do.
He points out (current as of 1979) that:
1. The Big Four automakers accounted for 91% of the market share.
2. The top four aluminum makers in America bagged 96% of the market share.
3. Big Oil? They only had 33% of the market.
Yet liberals were as quiet as church mice on numbers 1 and 2. Why? Big Labor of course.
As far as the monopoly pablum, in 1979, there were: 8,000 oil&gas producers, 130 refiners (FAR LESS now thanks to the liberals), 16,000 wholesalers, and 186,000 gas stations. HARDLY a monopoly. This is a typical liberal tactic. That is, spewing out total bullsh*t, without a shred of truth, in order to capture the moron vote. Hannity, on WMAL, played a series of liberal radio ads yesterday that called Republicans evil, racist, anti-Social Security, anti-family, blah, blah, blah. This comes on the heel of Howard the Coward Dean yammering THE DAY PRIOR that liberals DO NOT play the race card and NEVERRRRRRRRR lie. Doubtless, the moron is taking a band-sander to his 3 foot long nose right now.
Now, jump to the current election. What are the liberal's bleating now? A TAX on the oil companies (windfall tax) AND a gas tax "holiday." Tax and Spend and band-aid politics. Libs, serving up the same old sh*t year after year and their core base laps it up.
First of all, a tax on the oil companies is nothing more than a pablum spew by economically stupid liberal crowd. The tax, while it sounds good to the shallow minds on the left, does NOTHING but raise the cost of oil products to US! The cost of things like plastic bags, gas, oil, diesel, tires, etc, etc, WILL GO UP to cover the tax. The only ones who DO NOT care are the liberal politicians getting their cars, insurance, and gas, on the taxpayer's DIME. (Charles Rangel for one) Thanks again to the liberal's who wrote that law. Common sense economics SHOWS that ANY governmental interference results in US getting the dirty end of the stick since the cost ALWAYS gets passed onto the consumers. WHY can't the liberals understand this common concept.
Second, a "gas tax" holiday is pure crap. The government does NOTHING to bring gas, oil, diesel, etc, to the pumps. We NEED, WANT, and DESIRE this product, the oil companies pay MILLIONS to explore, drill, refine, and transport the fuel and the Feds DO NOTHING yet they reap about 65-85% of the cost of a gallon of gas. Liberals, of course, say NOTHING about this. Why ARE they taxing us? Why is the Gunny paying the SAME price in diesel as a semi? It should be the State taxing us for road maintenance, NOT the Feds. The state that an Interstate highway passes through is policed by STATE POLICE! WE pay for that with our taxes. WHY must we have a Federal gas tax? WE're getting screwed here folks. In fact, over 200 economists signed a letter calling the proposals by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain A BAD IDEA! Why? Because it will do nothing but RAISE the deficit and reduce the highway maintenance fund. The Gunny would like to see some research on how bad THIS fund has been raped over the years, like Social Security has been. Any excess at the end of the year has no doubt been skimmed for various pet projects instead of being flagged for the roads and allowed to grow. THEN, maybe, just MAYBE, the Feds could KILL the gas tax altogether. The same could be said about the Social Security fund. The libs moved it to the general fund under LBJ and then raped it.
The economists have stated that it [gas tax holiday] would save a mere 30.00 or so. McShamnesty whined: "I find people who are the wealthiest who are most dismissive of a plan to give low-income Americans a little holiday'' so they have ``a little more to give to their children and enjoy the summer a little more. Thirty dollars means nothing to a lot of economists -- I understand that. It means a lot to some low-income Americans.''
McVain, here is a little clue. Thirty bucks is nothing more than some more cigs, lotto tickets, and beer to low-income Americans. Indeed, many of them ride the bus, take the subway, walk, etc. A gas tax is a crock of sh*t anyway you slice it. Shrillary mewled this jewel to serial Clinton butt-kisser George Stephanopoulos: "I'm not going to put my lot in with economists'' because ``we would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively.'' Naturally, she makes NO MENTION of HOW it would be implemented "effectively." Shallow minds on the left fail to question it. And of course, as is typical of the liberals, Ms Rivlin, who ran the WH budget during the fetid Clinton years puked up this nugget: "If anything, we need higher gas taxes.'' TAX AND SPEND. TAX AND SPEND. And McShamnesty is right in there with Madam Hillary. WE on the RIGHT got flim-flammed getting that Liberal shoved down our throats.
The ONLY way to lower the price at the pump is through INCREASING the SUPPLY of gas and diesel. That means revoking the stupid environment rules and tarring and feathering ANY politician who stops the drilling in ANWR! That means telling the tree-huggers to take a flying leap at a rolling donut when they stand in the way of US building NEW and more efficent refineries. Then, and ONLY then, will the price at the pump go down. Supply and demand liberals, learn about it...PLEASE!
Reagan makes one EXCELLENT point in another speech on 29 May, 1979. He discusses the VERY problem that we face today. The inability to build new refineries because the EPA and the tree-huggers make it impossible to get it done. In 1969, Reagan points out, a man named Jack Evans applied for the permits to build a new refinery in Portsmouth, Va. As of that speech, TEN YEARS and 57 MILLION dollars later, and after numerous environmental reviews, the guy had not hammered ONE NAIL! Oh yeah, the lawyers got their fees as well.
Not to mention that the ONLY WAY we'll get politicians with a working brain is to hold these bums ACCOUNTABLE for their stupid statements and DEMAND that their solutions WORK, not just be a band-aid to pacify the morons on the left! Drill ANWR, Build NEW refineries, and export the enviros to the grizzly bears in Alaska! As for serving up used pablum each election, for each problem? It's all the liberals know how to do.