$2 Gas?

[PonyUP]

Just read a story on CNN money that Michelle Bachman has vowed to bring back $2 gas.

I think one of the largest things that frustrate me about the Presidential election season, is I hear all these candidates say things like

1) I'm going to lower taxes
2) I'll create Jobs
3) I'll find the lochness monster
4) I'll fix social security
5) I'll fix healthcare

What I find funny, is when they say these things in interviews (both dems and reps) the reporter never follows up with the worlds most obvious question

How?

$2 gas would be great, but I want to know how she is going to do it? Or every candidate is saying they will create jobs, how?

This is not meant to be another "I hate you" political thread so lets keep it peaceful. What ideas to you have to lower gas?

[DOOM]

Take me to taco bell and buy me two $.99 cent burritos and I'll give you all the $2.00 gas you want!!! :bounce:

[massacre]

I heard this on the way home from working on the Merc last night.

My thoughts:

When gas was high under Bush's watch, everyone talked about how the President should lower the prices, and how his family was in the oil business, etc.

Funny thing is, the President doesn't raise nor lower the price of gasoline. It is an involved process involving OPEK and the "speculators".

Now that gas prices are high again, now all of a sudden some Presidential candidate is going to lower gas prices? How the hell is she going to do that, when the President doesn't control that?

I think some people forget that the President doesn't have much control over things, the Congress has most of the control.

Politicians will say anything to get votes, including outright lies, which the American people should know better than to believe.
It's pretty low IMHO, preying on the economic situation and promising things that she knows can't be delivered.

[chicago_cop]

How about allowing us to Drill for Oil in this country instead of supporting OPEC Nations who fund our enemies and are killing our soldiers. Not political just fact.

[SID210SA]

What massacre said.....Prez has no control over gas prices.....speculators do.

As far as creating jobs.....dont know how...but our Gov Rick Perry did it here in Texas as reported by the media......there have been more jobs created in Texas during his watch than anyother State in the Union by atleast 50%.

[Fosters]

How about allowing us to Drill for Oil in this country instead of supporting OPEC Nations who fund our enemies and are killing our soldiers. Not political just fact.

This. Speculators have a lot to do with it, agreed, but what they do is speculate against a low supply/high demand. That's it.

Start drilling, increase supply, flood the market, create jobs at the same time, create some new refineries, and speculators will be put out of business - nobody is going to go for their speculations of shortness of supply, when - if we start drilling - we increase supply a lot.

[Fosters]

I heard this on the way home from working on the Merc last night.

My thoughts:

When gas was high under Bush's watch, everyone talked about how the President should lower the prices, and how his family was in the oil business, etc.

Funny thing is, the President doesn't raise nor lower the price of gasoline. It is an involved process involving OPEK and the "speculators".

Now that gas prices are high again, now all of a sudden some Presidential candidate is going to lower gas prices? How the hell is she going to do that, when the President doesn't control that?

I think some people forget that the President doesn't have much control over things, the Congress has most of the control.

Politicians will say anything to get votes, including outright lies, which the American people should know better than to believe.
It's pretty low IMHO, preying on the economic situation and promising things that she knows can't be delivered.
Isn't it funny how the same media outlets that were crying every day over the price of gas during the Bush administration, are now completely silent over the price of gas?

Yes, the president doesn't have much control over the price of gas; but he does have the ability to push congress to allow drilling, reduce epa regulations and department of energy bureaucracy and so on.

I may be mistaking, but I remember the current president running on "yes we can". So far it looks like he can't, or won't...

[kernie]

A couple weeks back gas around here was falling with the price of oil, then shell informed us their refinery in Sarnia was going to be down an extra week for maintenance, closed some stations because of course there was now a shortage. So much for falling prices, price shot right back up, :shake:, what a scam!

[Bigdogjim]

[QUOTE=massacre;1080342]
I think some people forget that the President doesn't have much control over things, the Congress has most of the control.
[QUOTE]


Keeping this "civil" You have hit on the biggest problem in America!

Congress has control only because the American voters are lazy and no longer care and are content to complain rather then do something!!

November is around the corner people vote 'em out!!

[Fosters]

A couple weeks back gas around here was falling with the price of oil, then shell informed us their refinery in Sarnia was going to be down an extra week for maintenance, closed some stations because of course there was now a shortage. So much for falling prices, price shot right back up, :shake:, what a scam!

At least Canada is building refineries... Last refinery built in the US was in 1976... :o

[Marauderman]

I heard this on the way home from working on the Merc last night.

My thoughts:

When gas was high under Bush's watch, everyone talked about how the President should lower the prices, and how his family was in the oil business, etc.

Funny thing is, the President doesn't raise nor lower the price of gasoline. It is an involved process involving OPEK and the "speculators".

Now that gas prices are high again, now all of a sudden some Presidential candidate is going to lower gas prices? How the hell is she going to do that, when the President doesn't control that?

I think some people forget that the President doesn't have much control over things, the Congress has most of the control.

Politicians will say anything to get votes, including outright lies, which the American people should know better than to believe.
It's pretty low IMHO, preying on the economic situation and promising things that she knows can't be delivered.

Exactly^^^^^^^^.......after all....you surely can't trust one hwo doesn't know when Elvis was born and died..........for goodness sake!!!

[CBT]

Exactly^^^^^^^^.......after all....you surely can't trust one hwo doesn't know when Elvis was born and died..........for goodness sake!!!
Wait a minute. Are you saying Elvis is DEAD?!

[thathotrodlincn]

In my opinion, gas prices are high for a number of reasons. There is no real lack of crude oil, but a significant lack if refinery capacity coupled with the rediculous problem of different fuel blends for different areas of the country and relatively minor clmate changes. Build more refineries and standardize fuels. Be more realistic on emissions. The more stringent the emissions requirements, the lower the fuel economy.

[GAMike]

In my opinion, gas prices are high for a number of reasons. There is no real lack of crude oil, but a significant lack if refinery capacity coupled with the rediculous problem of different fuel blends for different areas of the country and relatively minor clmate changes. Build more refineries and standardize fuels. Be more realistic on emissions. The more stringent the emissions requirements, the lower the fuel economy.

Very true....... Refining capacity is the number 1 problem the world has at the moment... Here in the U.S. the regs are so restrictive+ nobody wants a new refinery in their back yard anyways. Even if they did it would take 4 years to build one. So no immediate benefit to the present situation.....

Another thing to remember about politics. It used to be a candidate could tailor messages for specific parts of the country/audiences....... With all the communication technology available today, a candidate trying to line up with voters in say AZ, may say some things to that audience, that resonates with them....And that speech would be "contained" to the geographic area.......Nowadays, Zip file that same exact speech to a group in New Englandor post on Youtube, and they may be ready to revolt.......

This is why the savvy candidates don't get into specifics and just present to feelings and emotions most of the time.

[Mr. Man]

Exxon alone makes 40+ billion a year in profits why would they be interested in building refineries to lower the price of gas?:dunno:

[Fosters]

Exxon alone makes 40+ billion a year in profits why would they be interested in building refineries to lower the price of gas?:dunno:

Because they wouldn't have to buy refined gas somewhere else for higher cost?

And why not let them choose whether or not they will? With all the environmentalists fighting a refinery being proposed, they don't even have the option.

[GAMike]

Exxon alone makes 40+ billion a year in profits why would they be interested in building refineries to lower the price of gas?:dunno:

I think you will find that Exxon Mobil makes their profits in a number of different ways besides refining crude oil. @ .06-.08 per gallon of gas or something close to this they would not mind having the additional capacity.

[PonyUP]

I definitely agree that increasing the refinery capacity would greatly help. I also don't think we can just say oil companies are racking in the cash so they should lower their price. Demand has greatly grown which is why you are seeing record dollars, because of the high price. Their percentage of profits which I think may be a more accurate barometer has remained relatively flat. The large increase in cost to produce oil through regulation has kept that percentage flat. I submit that making it cheaper for oil companies to create gas would also greatly lower the price

[Vortex]

What massacre said.....Prez has no control over gas prices.....speculators do.

As far as creating jobs.....dont know how...but our Gov Rick Perry did it here in Texas as reported by the media......there have been more jobs created in Texas during his watch than anyother State in the Union by atleast 50%.

Re Perry and Texas, yes, there have been lots of new jobs created but most of them are minimum wage type jobs from what Ive read. Texas was lucky because 1. we have a diversified economy and 2. the big real estate bust didnt really happen here because we never had the real estate boom everyone else had.

"During the boom, cash-out refinancings were the unofficial currency of bubble states from Florida to California, beloved by mortgage brokers as a way to persuade existing homeowners to take out new loans repeatedly. As home values surged, the sales pitch was a slam-dunk: Borrowers could refinance their homes at extremely low interest rates, and based on newly reappraised property values get more cash in their hands than they might earn in a year….
But not in Texas. A borrower there can secure a home-equity line of credit from a bank. And she can refinance her mortgage or take out a home-equity loan. But the total amount of debt on a home cannot exceed 80 percent of its appraised value, and any proceeds cannot be used to pay off other debts."

Ill give Perry credit for doing a decent job after the hurricane(s) but he's kinda waaaay out there on alot of stuff.

[Motorhead350]

Shut down all the gas stations that are price gouging, shut those down and the remaining stations will comply.

[sailsmen]

All Politicians lie. If you lie to Congress the biggest liars in the World you go to jail but when Congress lies to us they get elected.

Where are the pitch forks and torches?

[Mike]

Take me to taco bell and buy me two $.99 cent burritos and I'll give you all the $2.00 gas you want!!! :bounce:

:lol: I wouldn't wanna be around for that :shake:

[MrBluGruv]

Re Perry and Texas, yes, there have been lots of new jobs created but most of them are minimum wage type jobs from what Ive read. Texas was lucky because 1. we have a diversified economy and 2. the big real estate bust didnt really happen here because we never had the real estate boom everyone else had.

That's the unfortunate thing that not many people seem to notice: It's not like a large amount of six-figure salaries found a home here. However, that doesn't change the fact that even low-paying jobs allow for economic growth in the long run. Even low-income people buy things.

I'm seriously torn about Perry; on the one hand, he's one of the only candidates I've seen with more serious experience than law school and the typical write-your-own-rules mentality of congress-people, but on the other hand you're right, some WAAAAY out there political and personal ideals (that he brings forward)....

[sailsmen]

The question is why have so many moved to TX? Is it because it is a bad place to live or a better place to live?

Living in a state next door where tens of thousands move to TX every year it is because by every measure it is a better place to live than here. I have over 2 dozen realtives that have moved to TX in the past 10 years and they all have good paying jobs. The ones that are in school are in a better school than they were here.

Based on current Federal Spending increases which is an 8% per year increase and projected economic growth of 1.5% per year in ~21 years Federal spending will exceed the entire economy.

This would require a 100% taxation on all economic activity.

It appears we cannot tax our way out of the current spending problem.

I like Paul Krugman's proposal for the Gov't to give every person $1 Trillion to solve all our economic and social problems. Just so long as I am the first one to get this freshly printed $1 Trillion I am all for it.

Govenor Perrry "SAVED" tens of millions of jobs too!