posted March 22, 2008 04:06 PM            

Let's review

These dems were screeching and shrieking about US energy policy and energy independence...and how they were going to fix it.

So, what have they done since taking over the Congress in 2006?

They've opposed each and every initiative which would really make the US independent of external sources for energy.

They oppose nuclear power and hydroelectric power plants. France gets 80% of their electricity from nuclear power alone. In the US about 40% of total consumed carbon based energy could be eliminated by nuclear and hydroelectric power. A 40% reduction in use of carbon based fuels to produce electricity is a lot but....Score one for dems.

While the price of oil is soaring on world markets it means more US dollars leaving the US and winding up in the pockets of foreign oil producers. But, dems oppose drilling in ANWAR, they oppose off shore drilling in the US continental shelf...where it's projected there is more oil than the known oil reserves of the world. They oppose drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. In the meantime, Cuba has cut a deal with China to drill off our own coast in that same continental shelf. Score 2 for the dems.

The dems have declared the vast Canadian sand tar reserves to be "alternative energy sources" and placed a prohibition on it's use by declaring it must be a "cleaner source of energy than oil, the primary energy source"...or subject to higher taxes. Dems don't seem to know that tar locked up in the sands of Canada IS solidified or semi-solidified OIL which in time would become coal or oil shale given the right heat and pressure. The principal carbon component of both tar sand and oil shale is bitumen a form of petroleum. Score 3 for the dems.

Part of the cost of a gallon of gasoline is the cost of refining...and the shortage of refining capacity. Dems oppose the building of any new refineries. There's no shortage of oil but there is a shortage of refinery space which are operating at near 100% capacity now. Any interruption of a refinery causes shockwaves in the price of gasoline. Dems even oppose refurbishing existing refineries and expanding their refining capacity. Score 4 for dems

There's 200 to 300 years of US energy needs locked up in vast shale oil deposits which are the largest in the world. Dems oppose building the plants to convert these shale oil deposits into liquid fuels. Score 5 for the dems

There are vast and I do mean vast deposits of coal in the US. Technology exists to convert coal to liquid fuels and has existed for almost 100 years. Dems oppose building the plants to do so. Score 6 for the dems

There are 17 different blends of gasoline mandated by dems at the federal and state levels. The switching over to produce these different blends for different regions and to produce summer and winter blends costs money and requires a balancing act on the part of refiners. Sometimes, there a shortage of stocks of one blend or another which raises the price of gasoline. It's an even bigger problem for refiners when it's understood that summer or winter temperatures don't rise or fall uniformly across the US. The result is that refineries may be producing summer blends for the sunbelt regions and winter blends for the north and northeast...at the same time.

If any one (1) of the things which could and should be done were done, the price of oil on world markets would fall like a rock in free fall. But dems oppose each and every one.

How many strikes before "you're out"?

But wait, dems have been talking down the US economy for 5 years...during a booming US economy with low unemployment rates and low rates of inflation, better than the averages of the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. Dems have also bashed the Bush tax cuts which brought the US economy our of the Clinton recession. During the Bush years those tax cuts spurred business investment in new plants, new products, employment and allowed changes in tax policy which took millions of families off the tax rolls altogather and raised tax revenues to the federal government. The top 50% of wage earners in the US pay 100% of all income taxes. The bottom 50% of wage earners pay zip, nada, zilch in income taxes. Dems want the Bush tax cuts to expire which will hand the average family about a $3000 tax increase and put millions of households back on the tax rolls.

The biggest fool in America would look at democrat initiatives or lack of any viable initiatives and declare them insane.

Oh wait, they already have and that's the reason for the 11% job approval rating for this democrat controlled Congress.

March 22, 2008
What kind of change have the Dems brought?
Jared Harold
Change! That is what the Democrats promised when they took over Congress in 2006.

Sure enough they were right and that is what we got. Were they the cause or the effect of getting elected?

Here are some of the outcomes of them being in control.

Up:

Gasoline up from $2.19 to $3.35 or 53%

Unemployment up from 4.5% to 5% or 11.1%

National dept per ca pita was $27,677 then and now $31,551 or 14% higher.

Congressional pay increase.

Down:

Consumer confidence at multiple year lows.

Equity value of mutual funds down $2.3 trillion.

Home equity values down $1.2 trillion

Congress's approval rating at all time low.

America voted for change and that is all that is left in our pocketbooks. Now they are selling the same ole snake-oil of "Change" in the Presidential election. $792,000,000 of the dollars that are left in America's pocket have been put into campaign donations so far.

posted March 22, 2008 05:27 PM            

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Gasoline up from $2.19 to $3.35 or 53%

Unemployment up from 4.5% to 5% or 11.1%

National dept per ca pita was $27,677 then and now $31,551 or 14% higher.

Congressional pay increase.

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The ONLY one of these that Congress would have any influence over is their pay increase, which would have required Republican complicity to pass. Sorry Charlie.

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Down:

Consumer confidence at multiple year lows.

Equity value of mutual funds down $2.3 trillion.

Home equity values down $1.2 trillion

Congress's approval rating at all time low.

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posted March 23, 2008 03:15 AM            

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Therefore, the size of the National Debt is the responsibility of Congress, the democrat controlled Congress. BTW, they just raised the debt ceiling limit.

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BS. Straight up. The National Debt ceased growing under Clinton who forced a balanced budget. It has increased as a direct result of Bush along with his Republican-controlled Congress. No dice. Charts abound on the internet. Learn something.

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You also know or should know that energy policy for the US

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Are we talking about Cheney's secret energy commission? Isn't it the Executive Branch that decides policy?

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The day a bill to drill in ANWAR, leases are let to drill offshore in the Continental shelf, build nuclear and or hydroelectric power plants or begin licensing and construction of facilities to convert oil shale into liquid fuels....any one of those, then a concerted effort will be made to discourage this by foreign oil produces....by radically reducing the price of crude oil. Further acoustic, any one of those actions would send shock waves through the oil futures markets and holders of long oil futures contracts would bail out...try to sell to get out before the debacle. Oil prices would tumble on a downhill slide that would be shocking.

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Wrong. I guess you missed my recent post. Here's the address: http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/003889.html
Missed the mark again I'm afraid. Further, we had a Republican President AND Congress for years, did we not? They had the opportunity, and what did they do? It's not a Democrats in Congress issue by any stretch.

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You also know or certainly should know that talking down the economy, talking about raising taxes, talking about repealing or not renewing the Bush tax cuts has a disastrous effect on the recipients of the tax cuts, including businesses and corporations, who put plans on hold for expansion, development of new product lines, building of new production facilities, lay off employees they normally would retain and knocks the props out from under the economy...which has been robust for the last 5 years. This is democrat talk acoustic and it causes the rising unemployment rates.

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This is super far fetched logic. By your logic Bush's talk (along with various Congressional leader's talk) about his "Economic Stimulus Package" would pull the economy right out of it's nose-dive. No sale. Talk is cheap. Even action by the Fed has had trouble staving off this recession. Democrats, lower employment and lower consumer confidence are all separate and unrelated issues, and it's laughable that you'd even attempt to spin something as ludicrous as Democrats talking killed the economy. Retarded.

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Congressional pay raises speak for themselves but let me remind you, this is a democrat controlled House and Senate. They took this action voluntarily and no one twisted their arms to raise their paychecks.....and therefore their retirement checks.

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Congressional cost of living increases have been automatic since 1989, brother. You want to tell me how often the Republican-controlled Congress voted out it's pay raise? None.

"Last year (2007) was the first since 1999, when the pay was $136,700, that members of Congress did not receive a cost-of-living allowance raise along with other federal employees. Democrats, newly elected to the majority, had vowed to block an increase in their paychecks until Congress raised the minimum wage."
Article

One more final note on this: The President signs these pay increases in, so you've only got a Republican to finger. For more on Congressional pay increases: www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/97-1011.pdf

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Consumer confidence in the economy and no wonder since democrats and their willing accomplices in the press have been badmouthing the great economy for 5 years and still are. Call this a cumulative effect which coupled with some layoffs, corporations fleeing the socialist policies of the democrat congress and moving more production offshore all have their effect. Most people report they are better off but they're just sure people are losing their jobs at an alarming rate. They don't know any of those people but press misinformation and democrat badmouthing has it's effect on consumer confidence. The good news...not good news for democrats, is that Americans have confidence in a rebounding of the economy in 2009.

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Once again, this is tantamount to a conspiracy theory, and holds no basis in the real world reality. Of course you leave the Fed out, and you leave the mortgage crisis out, and you suppose corporations are moving things off-shore to avoid Socialism when in actuality they're just moving to places with currency worse than the dollar. Once again: retarded.

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This yipping and yapping by demcorats have also had a disastrous effect on pension funds as the assets...stocks which fund pensions have declined. All this yipping and yapping by democrats IS hurting the very people they SAY they care about.

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Another conspiracy theory. Where's my shaking head like, "What's this guy thinking?" smiley? Listen you would say that Democrats talk of such things has been constant since the beginning of time. You'd say Bill Clinton was in amongst those. How could we have ever had a good economy if your preposterous notion were correct? It couldn't. You're paranoid, and it's showing.

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Yadda yadda yadda, you finally mention the mortgage crisis

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For the mortgage part of that argument you're fine, but the Democrats taking down the economy and causing layoffs is completely unsubstantiated.

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They are just a fact and there's no amount of spin or evasion from the fact democrats are in control of both the House and Senate and Americans have assigned this Congress the lowest job approval ratings in recorded history.

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Democrats ARE NOT in control of Congress. They don't have the votes to overturn the President, so your argument continues to be moot.

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So acoustic, it wasn't merely a "nice try" as you suggested but rather, a connecting of all the dots in a factual exercise of logic, truth and reason.

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