It Should Be Obvious…Bush has Failed the American People

Is isn’t any secret that higher gasoline prices are affecting every person and every business. The effects are being felt in many ways that a lot of us did not even consider. Some communities have cut school bus routes, police patrols, traveling libraries and lawn maintenance. The St. Paul Police Department is encouraging officers to use horses and bikes. Other police departments are asking police officers to park their cars and return to foot patrol. Holly Springs, Georgia is beginning to add a “fuel surcharge” to all moving violation tickets that police issue. A number of state agencies, including those in Utah, are going to four-day workweeks to save energy costs and reduce commuting expenses for their employees.

Rising gas prices are affecting every product that is made, transported, eaten and sold at your local shopping center. Well, the list goes on. But the people who are hardest hit are those who depend on others to bring them the daily care they desperately need. I’m talking about the elderly and homebound without the ability to care for themselves. These people depend on volunteer agencies to deliver food, transportation assistance and home care.

In a recent survey by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, more than half said they had already cut back on programs because of gas costs, and 90 percent said they expected to make cuts in the 2009 fiscal year. In the survey of agencies, more than 70 percent said it was more difficult to recruit and keep volunteers.

The obvious answer for these people may be to place them in nursing care facilities. But the unfortunate sad fact is that many of them cannot afford this very expensive solution. Many are on social security which just barely covers their basic daily necessities. If they are placed in facilities they will become an additional financial burden on the taxpayer.

Agencies have suffered from Medicare cuts in recent years and are lobbying Congress to account for fuel inflation in reimbursement rates and to reinstate special increases for providers in rural areas, a program that expired in 2006.

Now, one would think that since higher gas prices are forcing people to drive less that less gas is being purchased which means those record profits that oil companies enjoyed last year are going to suffer. So is it really in the best interest of oil companies to keep jacking up their prices? Just what is the cause of rising gas prices?

Bush claims demand is raising gas prices. Our population size did not suddenly increase two-fold to justify a doubling of demand and therefore doubling of gas prices. The 13-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) disputes his claim. The true reason for the increase is the U.S. economy and President Bush’s policies are directly to blame for it. He keeps spouting “It should be obvious...” Well, Mr. Bush, saying it should be obvious is not a valid argumentative point. Give us some proof. People are driving less but the prices keep going up.

No sir, the biggest cause of higher oil prices is the demise of the American dollar and investors reactions to it. Oil is traded in dollars. A weak dollar means that foreign investors can buy more oil, which helps drive up the price so here is where your twisted view of demand comes into play. Huge institutional investors start buying oil as a safe place to put their money, safer than the dollar or the stock market.

"Oil is the new gold," said James Burkhard, director of global oil market analysis at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates consulting firm. "Oil has some intrinsic value, and that value remains even if the dollar depreciates."

It was only in March of this year that analysts said the fundamental issues of oil supply and demand should bring oil prices down. "At some point, the fundamentals have to reassert themselves," says Burkhard. "At some point, this has to stop, unless the dollar is in a terminal freefall."

The U.S. economy has been losing steam since last year's mortgage meltdown, which can be blamed on irresponsible home mortgage lending practices and the unscrupulous lenders who reason they will be bailed out by the government if it all fails. The weakening economy has investors uninterested in putting their money in the stock market so they put it in oil, the value of which has tripled in five years. When less money goes into the stock market the ripple effect brings the economy down even further.

This administration seizes the opportunity when discussing fossil fuel price increases to push their “commitment to renewable energy”, mainly the use of corn for biofuel production which feeds yet another corporate moneymaking scheme through even more federal subsidies and pushes food prices up as well. He is trying to refocus our attention from the real problems he has caused, because he doesn’t have any answers, to a positive spin that we will soon be free of foreign oil dependence. But this amounts to a load of rubbish.

We will be forced to pay an ever higher cost of living in America for fuel and every product that requires it for transportation whether it come from foreign shores or America’s own corn fields. We will be forced to pay ever higher costs for food because it will continue to be shipped from foreign shores because of Bush’s “world open market” economic policies. And corporations will continue to reap record profits.

Bush claims that a growing demand for fuel in China and India are placing pressure on the fuel supply to America. If this were to be true then China and India should pay the higher prices, not the U.S.

The bottom line is that this administration’s poor economic policies and rich corporate welfare policies has forced an increase in:

food prices,
gas prices,
the number of Americans losing their homes,
the number of Americans who are going hungry
the number of Americas poor

So I ask, has this president been good for America? It should be obvious.