Posted by
Stefano on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:15:18 PM
A very large portion of the electorate and the media do not understand basic economics, and a large portion of Congress (mostly the left) knows how to manipulate that ignorance to maintain power. The people hurt the most by higher gas prices are the middle class and below. The democrats demagogue and point to the domestic oil companies as the cause and the media transmits the lie to the masses. The people most affected vent their anger at the target pointed at by the left and at those who speak the real truth about the decreasing supply of oil and the increasing demand of consumers. The conservatives need a massive education movement to crush the lies of the left with the truth. The American Solutions formula of "Drill here, drill now, pay less" is a great start. That needs to be backed up with a simple message that encompasses such things as the fact that the largest oil company in the US, Exxon is only ranked #17 in the world by reserves. The top 12 are:
Saudi Arabian Oil Company 295b
National Iranian Oil Company 287b
Qatar Petroleum 165b
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company 137b
Iraq National Oil Company 137b
Gazprom 115b
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation 107b
Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. 102b
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation 62b
National Oil Corporation (Libya) 45b
Sonatrach 40b
Rosneft 35b
To claim that Exxon controls world oil prices is simply goofy.
The dems want to tax the "windfall profits" of our domestic oil companies. You don't have to be a high school graduate to know that stealing capital from the oil companies reduces their ability to compete for resources on the world stage. Also, the theft of money from oil companies affects millions of pension plans of retired and working people by confiscating a portion of the book value or dividends of oil companies invested in by their pension plans.
This is the basic kind of stuff that the right needs to get hot on now in order to save this country from the socialist tidal wave bearing down it.