The Connecticut Legislature in which Democrats enjoy controlling majorities in both houses, has decided at the last possible moment to forestall a four-cent increase in the state gas tax.
Whoooppeeee!
Please note that our ever-so-attuned-to-the-public's-wishes legislators have forestalled an increase.
Not stopped it, nor heaven forbid rolled it back. Nope. Just forestalled it until other market factors come into play and gas drops back to its halcyon price of, oh I don't know, maybe $3.56 per gallon or so.
Then, one day when our attention is focused on some other calamity of the hour, gas will quietly edge back up to $3.60 per gallon and we will attribute it to a market fluctuation. So they hope.
Boy is this a great day for us or what? Our very own state Legislators are running the risk of dropping out of the top ten states in the country, based on highest gasoline taxes, and they are doing it all for us! I am sooooooo grateful.
Let's see. I usually need about 13 gallons when I fill up, which I do twice a week. So that's 4 times 26, which comes out to just over a buck a week!
For the 10 weeks of summer vacation time that amounts to WOW! Ten Bucks! And Change!
Oh, baby, call my stock broker! We're going to show Warren Buffett a thing or two now! You bet!
What an incredible crock. What a miserable insult to the intelligence of every voter in Connecticut.
What gall!
The great Do-Nothing Legislature caps its most infamous session of thumb twiddling and toe tapping by NOT whacking us with another tax increase, and we are supposed to be all mewling and grateful about it!
I have an idea for the legislature. How about if you take that four cents and ... No, wait, sometimes kids read this column.
OK, how about if you ... no, I probably shouldn't say that either.
Well, here's an idea. How about you cut needless spending on pandering programs and start cutting taxes across the board?
How about you stop regulating business to the point that it is leaving this state like Europeans fleeing the bubonic plague?
Or, barring those miracles, how about I run this column once a week every week from now until November, just to remind people what a bunch of pandering, manipulating, arrogant elitists we have running the show in our state?
Maybe, just maybe, enough people will be mindful of what is going on in June to make some real changes in November.
I am fond of saying in this column that I learned long ago that I may not be able to influence national and international affairs, but that I can tend to business in my own back yard.
Well, this is one of those times which neatly meshes with one of those issues where if we all stand up, speak up and act up, we CAN make a difference.
There are various reasons why gas prices are so high. Two of them are that the world-wide demand has skyrocketed due to the two most populous countries, China and India, finally realizing the joys of individual freedom that come from personal motor vehicles.
And, our US Congress, also controlled by Democrats (but who is keeping track,) has for decades put such a crushing weight of regulations on exploration, drilling and refining oil that we don't do it much anymore. Explore, drill or refine that is.
So we are stuck getting much of our oil from places like Canada - #1 on our import parade; Saudi Arabia #2; and Mexico #3.
Even though our oil companies know where our oil is, and how to get it out cleanly, (you didn't hear about any environmental disasters when a series of major hurricanes swept the Gulf of Mexico offshore drilling rigs three years ago did you?) they aren't allowed to. Democrats in Congress voted again just in May, when the gas price calamity was in full swing, against drilling offshore and of course in ANWAR, the number one tourist attraction north of the Arctic Circle.
That hasn't stopped China from drilling off the tip of Florida and using modern technology to grab oil that should be ours for the taking. But what the hey, this is a global economy and if our Chinese brothers and sisters need to make things hard for us so they can recover from two generations of communist excesses, why not let them? Right?
Let's not talk about all the alternative forms of energy that haven't been developed or that hydrogen hybrids are available right this instant that could drop our national demand for refined gasoline down to the bottom of wherever in six months if the auto manufacturers were so inclined.
Let's just talk for the moment about how we got to the point where the world supply of refined petroleum products is not meeting the demand for refined petroleum products so every time some thumb-sucking futures trader gets a tad anxious the price of oil skyrockets with gasoline prices leading the way.
I meant that. Did you ever notice that gas often goes up before the price of oil? How about that for manipulating the markets?
While we're pondering those inconsistencies in the laws of supply and demand, let's keep in mind why and how we got into this predicament in the first place. Locally, right here in Connecticut, not just nationally.
Let's not forget how the people who brought us to this low station in life - the Democrats controlling Connecticut's legislature - just spent five months sitting on their rear ends in the state capitol building doing nothing except pardoning centuries old witches, letting violent criminals off the hook, voting to increase our taxes, and figuring sneakier ways to screw us to the wall.
Go Democrats!
No really I mean it.
Go.
Democrats.
Remember that slogan in November.
Monday, June 09, 2008
1 comments:
Go Ron:
Anger is the only thing politician understand. Keep it up.
Let us also mention the fact that since we can't drill in our own backyard, our dollars are going elsewhere depleting a prosperous economy that won't be so prosperous in a few years. All because of oil. I hate hearing politicians saying things like, "We don't need to drill, we just need to put our money into alternative energy. Well, alternative energy is still a long way off. I remember my economics professor saying in College in 1973 that nuclear fusion was only 20 years away. Now I hear they won't be able to provide that source of energy until we mine Hydrogen3 from the moon and bring it back here. Let me guess that we can't expect that for what... maybe a hundred years. I for one don't believe all the alternative energy crap. It ain't gonna happen for 20, 30 or 40 years. We have three trillion barrels of shale oil in this country and we can't go get it. And, I agree with you on Anwar. Gee, when is the last time you visited there. Since it is 3 million acres and oil is only on a few thousand acres does it make sense to just take that part out of the preserve and give em several thousand acres on the other end. As for drilling offshore, it is not to be touched to save the environment. Do you think our environmental protection agency is going to dictate to China how they must protect the environment in Florida. Again, ain't gonna happen. The Chinese will have oil floating all over the Gulf of Mexico in no time flat. What a bunch of losers this country has in Congress.
Enough of my ranting. Thanks for getting me back on a roll.