Commentary:
Big-Mouth Bush Told Clinton How To Handle OPEC
April 30th 2006
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While on the campaign trail in 2000, Bush told President Bill Clinton
how to handle OPEC, in public no less. “What I think the president ought
to do," he said, "is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel
and say we expect you to open your spigots."
And in a brilliant, highly educational follow-up comment, Bush informed
the audience: "One reason why the price is so high is because the price
of crude oil has been driven up."
"OPEC has gotten its supply act together," Bush advised listeners, "and
it's driving the price, like it did in the past."
"And," he said in direct advice to Clinton, "the president of the United
States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the prices."
Apparently, Bush has lost the phone numbers for OPEC members, or they
are refusing to take his calls, because I think its safe to assume that
he did not "jawbone" members of the OPEC cartel.
That said, if Bush is not in the mood for "jawboning," he could at least
use a little pillow talk with his buddies in Saudi Arabia and get them
to open the spigots.
During campaign 2000, Bush told Americans that he had an energy plan
that would reduce gas prices at the pumps and here we sit 5 years later,
with the highest prices in history.
The high energy costs are affecting everyone, from commuters and
consumers, to public and private programs. The damage is devastating
everywhere.
Since Bush took office, gas prices have increased 62.5% from $1.44 per
gallon in January 2001 to $2.34 in March 2006. The average household
with children will spend about $3,343 on transportation fuel costs this
year, an increase of 75% since 2001, according to the Energy Information
Administration, Retail Gasoline Prices, and Household Vehicle Energy
Use: Latest Data and Trends, November 2005.
And gas prices are still rising. As of April 24, 2006, the AAA Daily
Fuel Gauge report said, nationally, the average price for a gallon of
regular gas was $2.90, or a 15.5% hike over the $2.51 price per gallon a
month ago.
So where is all the money going? One need not look far. In 2005, the
world's largest oil company, Exxonmoblile, reported the most profitable
year in US corporate history, earning more than $36 billion.
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Economists say oil producers and refiners, not gas stations, are making
a killing. The five largest refineries, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips,
Shell, Valero, and British Petroleum (BP) have recorded $228 billion in
profits since 2001, according to testimony at a congressional hearing
last November.
In 1999, refiners made 23 cents for each gallon processed and in 2004,
they made 41 cents a gallon, according to Department of Energy data.
While watching oil company profits skyrocket, the average American
household spent about $107 more for heating this past winter compared to
the year before. In 2005-06, households heating with natural gas paid
$402, or 86% more than they paid in 2001-2002. Consumers of heating oil
paid $759, or 121% more this winter than they paid in 2001-2002,
according to the Energy Information Administration, Short Term Energy
Outlook, April 2006.
Family budgets, already strained by the rising cost of health care and
health insurance, including higher co-payments and deductibles, as well
as prescription drugs, college tuition, and other everyday expenses, are
being stretched to the limit.
Energy costs are largely responsible for the declining real wages of
working people. With the ever-rising cost of gasoline, employees are
seeing their paychecks dwindle by the simple fact that they have to
drive back and forth to work.
For many low-income families, gas now burns through 10% of household
income. In Wisconsin, according to Consumer News, pawn shops are
reporting brisk business as people hock their belongings to raise money
for gas.
But it is not only the poor who are affected, a majority of the
population is taking a hit. Students cannot afford to drive to school.
Owners of recreational vehicles, faced with paying more than $200 to
fill up the gas tank, are rethinking vacation trips.
"It's taking food off my table," James of Alexandria, VA told Consumer
News. "I am having trouble and I'm late paying my daughter's tuition. No
vacation this year. I'm charging gas on my credit card because I don't
have $50 to put 20 gallons of gas in my car," he said.
Local governments, already struggling to pay for essential services due
to continuous cuts in Federal funding, are overwhelmed in trying to keep
school buses, police cars, fire trucks, and other public vehicles on the
road.
Senior citizens are already strapped by the extra costs of trying to
keep their homes heated, and now the Meals on Wheels program is having
trouble delivering food to their homes due to high gas prices.
Rising fuel costs are forcing city and county officials all across the
country to boost budgets, cut back on social programs that rely on
transportation and scrutinize vehicle use.
For 2005, the Appleton, Wisconsin city budget estimated fuel costs for
gasoline and diesel would be $595,000. In October 2005, Appleton Mayor,
Tim Hanna, projected actual costs to be $936,000.
The rise in the cost of fuel in the past year forced the city of
Charleston, SC to spend $150,000 more than planned just to keep its
public vehicles running.
In Winnebago County, Wisconsin, County Executive Mark Harris recently
noted the need for more than 100 layoffs, threatening positions once
thought indispensable. The county’s combined cost for all types of fuel,
budgeted at an estimated $1.6 million in 2005, is predicted to rise to
nearly $2.2 million in 2006, according to Harris.
Back on August 26, 2005, the Deseret Morning News reported that Arizona
was bracing for the financial impact from gas prices. "Already," Deseret
reported, "state officials are looking at boosting the state budget next
year by nearly $685,000 to make up for the increase in gas costs."
According to the Arizona Republic on October 6, 2005, the Arizona
Department of Public Safety will cut the number of miles police will
patrol on the highway due to skyrocketing gas prices that could cost the
agency an extra $2 million in 2006.
"Officers have been ordered to cut their driving by 10 percent a month
and conduct stationary enforcements using radar guns on freeway ramps,
medians or overpasses instead of patrolling," the Republic said.
In Calumet County, Wisconsin, finance director, Dan De Bonis, informed
county supervisors that motor fuel will cost the county about $91,000
more in 2006, a 62% hike, and that heating costs will increase as much
as 44%.
The Bush administration has failed to take any action to deal with the
crisis. Every day, American workers, consumers, and small businesses
suffer with no solutions in sight. The response from the White House has
been to claim that Americans are addicted to oil.
The tax breaks, if any, that average families received under Bush's tax
cut program, have long ago been siphoned away at the pump. Yet, while
traveling in California last weekend, Bush warned of even higher prices
with vacation time approaching.
In a feeble attempt to appease the public this week, Bush said he will
temporarily divert oil used to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve into
the market to drive prices down.
Apparently acknowledging the act as a do-nothing remedy, Bush made the
comment, "Every little bit counts."
I doubt that many people appreciated a snide remark like this coming
from a guy who has never had to balance a checkbook, never had to worry
about paying a heating bill or filling up the gas tank, but who now
through some perverse twist of fate, maintains a stranglehold on the
nation's purse strings.
By Evelyn Pringle
Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an
investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government.
Contact Evelyn
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