By John W. Lillpop
Most Americans see the devastating rise in gasoline prices as an ominous threat to their personal standard of living, prosperity, and basic ability to survive.
Unfortunately, President Barack Obama and most liberal Democrats do not share that concern.
Which is why Obama flippantly dismissed the crisis by warning we the people to, “Get used to it,” perhaps forgetting, or deliberately ignoring, the fact that skyrocketing gas prices are particularly crippling to low-income and poor people, many of whom are minorities, the very people that progressives claim to be championing.
Even more sinister is the fact that Obama and fellow progressives see carnage at the gas pump as a “Crisis too good to waste,” i.e., a golden opportunity to push anti-business, anti-energy independence policies down the throats of the American people.
We the people must never forget that Barack Obama is committed to getting Americans out of gasoline-powered automobiles in the name of advancing extremist environmental ideology.
For example, Steven Chu, Obama’s Energy Secretary was even quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying “We have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." At the time, gasoline in Europe was going for around $8 a gallon.
Remember, too, that Candidate Barack Obama revealed that he considered it acceptable for the federal governmental to deliberately bankrupt an industry for failing to meet environmental standards set in Washington, D.C.
He was specifically referring to coal, but the remarks aptly demonstrate this man’s utter contempt for private enterprise and free markets, Holy Grail items to freedom-loving Americans.
With that mindset, it should come as no great surprise that President Obama has completely ignored the supply side of the crisis, electing instead to attack oil companies with higher taxes, as reported in part at the reference:
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says oil companies are profiting from rising pump prices and he wants Congress to end $4 billion in annual tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.Once again, Barack Obama has declared all-out war on private enterprise, the very institution that creates jobs and prosperity.
"These tax giveaways aren't right," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. "They aren't smart. And we need to end them."
Drivers in 22 states are paying more than the national average of $3.91 per gallon. In Alaska, California and Connecticut, it's $4.20 or more.
The price jump has slowed economic growth and hurt Obama's public approval ratings.
Exxon Mobil Corp. this week reported nearly $11 billion in profits for the first quarter of this year. Competitors also had huge gains.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he plans to consider Obama's proposal as early as this coming week.
The president said money recouped from ending the oil and gas tax subsidies should go to new energy resources and research. He said he refuses to cut spending on clean energy initiatives.
"An investment in clean energy today is an investment in a better tomorrow," he said. "And I think that's an investment worth making."
Obama's critics say ending the subsidies would mean tax increases that would end up costing jobs.
"The president may think he's punishing CEOs of big companies, but his plan will hurt the everyday consumer of energy and imperil the jobs of millions of hardworking people in American-based companies," Rep. James Lankford, a first-term congressman from Oklahoma, said in the Republicans' weekly address.
In his address, Obama said the economy was growing again and took note of nearly 2 million new private sector jobs in the last 13 months. But the president did not mention that the pace of the recovery slowed significantly in the first three months of this year.”
The outrage is that the president wages his assault in the name of cutting the deficit and improving the economy.
Is Obama even aware of the fact that 70 percent of the American people believe America is headed in the wrong direction?
As with his failed one- trillion dollar stimulus fiasco, mortgage- relief mess, and unconstitutional take over of health care, President Obama refuses to admit two essential truths:
The gasoline crisis must be addressed by removing government barriers to supply, and the economic crisis is the result of excessive spending not on the need for higher taxes.
Most significantly, President Obama continues to ignore we the people, owners and proprietors of this marvelous wonder known as American democracy.
Thankfully, we the people have recourse which we can exercise at the ballot box in November, 2012.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110430/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama
