WHAT CAN A MERE PRESIDENT (AND HIS RUBBER-STAMP CONGRESS) DO TO HELP WITH THE PRICE OF GASOLINE?

Bush just finished a speech-- in Chicago I think-- about the sky-rocketing gas prices his Regime's policies have brought on. I admit I didn't watch it but it was on in the background while I was brushing my teeth and getting dressed and getting ready for my morning hike. Afterwards some silly CNN talking heads were babbling to themselves about "what can a president do?" What indeed?

A great idea-- albeit a "blue idea"-- would have been to give tax advantages to people who bought hybrid cars or small, gas-effcient cars. An old commentary on BUZZFLASH had a great take on the "red idea" of how to approach (acerbate) the problem. "Our last 'jobs bill,' enacted in May of this year, included a provision that allows small business owners to deduct the entire cost of vehicles over 6,000 pounds gross weight, up to $100,000. This was done to encourage small business owners to purchase new vehicles for their businesses. Well, kids, it just so happens that some luxury SUVs are over 6,000 pounds, including such small business workhorses as the Mercedes M Class, Cadillac Escalade, Range Rovers, and the ultimate machine for men with small genitalia, the Hummer. It also happens that the IRS doesn't care if you purchase a delivery truck for your small business or one of these gas-guzzling monstrosities to, say, attend business meetings at your law firm's private golf course. Either purchase is completely deductible. Since May this disgraceful loophole in the tax code has cost America $1.3 billion in lost tax revenue as anybody who could claim to be a small business owner rushed out and purchased a tax-subsidized luxury SUV. This was Tom DeLay's approach to the high price of gasoline and with a tightly Republican controlled rubber-stamp congress, the only way to have stopped this madness would have been for Bush to have vetoed it. He signed it. And then he signed a renewal the following year.

So, back to the CNN talking heads question about what a president can do. This one? Forget it. And we don't get a new one for another 2 and a half years. So... maybe it's time for us all to think what WE can do-- really do-- to get rid of the rubber-stamp Congress. I mean, are we going to sit around and wait for fearless federal prosecutors to arrest them one after the other until the prisons are filled with Republicrooks like "Duke" Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Wade Mitchell, Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, Conrad Burns and the rest? Or are we going to get involved? Contributing to the progressive, grassroots candidates on the DWT ACT BLUE Page is a good step. People like Francine Busby, Ned Lamont, Jerry McNerney, Jan Schneider are in tough races right now and these are men and women who will get to work in Washington un-doing the years of destruction that Bush and his rubber-stamp Congress have wrought. And there's more that can be done than donating. I was so proud the other day when a DWT reader wrote me a letter about his frustrations with the political climate in the country. He's in Montana and I wrote back and suggested he volunteer at John Tester's campaign headquarters. I was over-the-moon when he wrote back a couple days later to tell me how he had just done so. One voter at a time, one district at a time, we need to take back our country. It is our country, not the corporations' and their political whores' country.


NOON UPDATE: REPUBLICANS BAD/DEMOCRATS (AT LEAST IN THIS CASE) GOOD

The DSCC has a fact page showing how Bush and the Republican rubber-stampers are responsible for high gas prices. When Bush occupied the White House in January 2001, the average price of a gallon of gas was $1.46. Today, the price is $2.91, a 100% increase over the course of the Bush presidency. [It's already over $3.00 a gallon in many areas of the country-- including my own.] Despite the verbiage to the contrary from Bush and his spokespersons, under his watch, U.S. dependence on foreign oil has increased by nearly one billion barrels.

Bill Frist and the Senate rubber-stamp Republicans killed a Democratic proposal to make gas price gouging a federal crime. Without making price gouging a federal crime, the federal government can only prosecute oil companies if they can prove collusion to control markets, a standard that is nearly impossible to meet. The Republicans who voted to directly raise the price of gas by opposing this simple bill include the following clowns who are up for re-election in November: George Allen (R-VA), Conrad Burns (R-MT), John Ensign (R-NV), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and Richard Lugar (R-IN). Meanwhile, the watchdog agency that should be protecting consumers' interests, Bush's Federal Trade Commission has looked the other way when it comes to price gouging. Even during Hurricane Katrina, when price gouging was completely evident, the FTC investigation "found no evidence of collusion among oil companies in the 2005 gas price surge."

And the rubber-stamp Republican-led Congress has ignored oil and gas monopolies. Since 2001, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee in charge of overseeing mergers, chaired by Ohio crooked pol Mike DeWine, has held exactly one hearing-- two years ago-- to examine high gas prices. They didn't do anything (helpful). And, of course, the GOP Congress has turned a blind eye to holding executives from the nation's richest oil companies accountable. In November, when executives from the nation's richest oil companies testified before the Senate Energy and Commerce Committees, Ted Stevens and the Republican leaders refused to force them to testify under oath. These are the same bribe-taking Republicans who crafted the 2005 energy bill which showered billions in tax breaks on oil and gas companies, (the same companies that showered Republicans with kickbacks, bribes and "campaign contributions")-- and even these greedy scumbags later testified under oath that they don't even need these breaks!

Last December, Senate Republicans-– with Cheney casting the tiebreaking vote-– adopted a budget package that included $20 million in cuts to Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program. Republicans who have to face their constituents in November who voted against renewable energy include George Allen (R-VA), Conrad Burns (R-MT), John Ensign (R-NV), Jon Kyle (R-AZ), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Rick Santorum (R-PA), Jim Talent (R-MO). Every single Democrat-- even reactionaries like Lieberman and the 2 Nelsons-- voted for renewable energy sources, as did a small handful of embarrassed Republicans. And, as every DWT reader should know by now, the oil gas companies are constantly lining the pockets of Republican incumbents and GOP candidates. In the 2004 election cycle alone, the oil and gas industry contributed more than $20 million to them and in the 2006 cycle, this number has already topped $6 million and is expected to go much higher as the corporations fight tooth and nail to keep their docile rubber-stamp Republican Congress in power.

And, last but not least, the Bush Regime's failure to properly plan for the war in Iraq has caused a disruption in the pre-war supply of 900,000 barrels of oil a day from Iraq, the largest single supply disruption that is leading to spikes in the price of oil.

Meanwhile New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is proposing an immediate cut in the gas tax by eliminating tax breaks for oil companies to bring down the price for working men and women who are suffering under Republican rule.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is fighting to give immediate relief to consumers during this summer’s busy driving season by providing a Federal Gas Tax Holiday paid for by repealing over $6 billion in tax breaks and giveaways to Big Oil. His amendment gives Americans temporary and immediate relief from sky high gas prices directly at the pump. It suspends the federal gas tax for 60 days to help reduce the cost of gas and diesel for consumers. This amendment will provide $100 million per day in relief directly to Americans.

This amendment will provide more than $6 billion in relief directly to consumers by eliminating the federal tax for both gas and diesel for 60 days. During the period of this gas tax holiday, the cost of gas will be reduced by $0.184 per gallon and the cost of diesel by $0.244 per gallon. Drivers will receive real relief every time they go to the pump during this period.

Big Oil made unbelievable profits-- over $100 billion last year alone. Menendez' proposal will provide direct relief to consumers and be fully paid for by repealing three major tax breaks that Big Oil clearly does not need and eliminating unnecessary and expensive royalty relief.

And Nancy Pelosi got pissed off and had something to say about Bush's idiotic speech too! You go, girl! (This is a rough transcript:)

"If you want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and therefore improve our national security situation, you can't do it if you're a Republican because you are too wedded to the oil companies. We have two oilmen in the White House. The logical follow-up from that is $3 a gallon gasoline. There is no accident. It is a cause and effect, a cause and effect. how dare the President of the United States make a speech today in April many, many, many months after the American people have had to undergo the cost of home heating oil-- a woman told me she almost fainted when she received her home heating bill over this winter-- and when so many people making the minimum wage, which hasn't been raised in eight years, which has a very low purchasing power, have to go out and buy gasoline at these prices? Where have you been, Mr. President? The middle class squeeze is on, competition in our country is effected by the price of energy and of oil and all of a sudden you take a trip outside of Washington, see the fact that the public is outraged about this, come home and make a speech, let's see that matched in your budget; let's see that matched in your policy; let's see that matched in and you're separating yourselves yourself from your patron, big oil, cut yourself off from that anvil holding your party down and this country down. Instead of coming to Washington and throwing your Republican colleagues under the wheels of the train, which they mightily deserve for being a rubber stamp for your obscene, corrupt policy of ripping off the American people."