Buy:kenbuzz
05-31-08, 08:40 AM
My local representative to Congress, Baron Hill, just blamed the Bush administration for something that happened on HIS watch:
linky: http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2008/05/30/news.qp-3084913.sto
Hill vows action on high oil prices
With gas prices at record highs, Indiana congressman Baron Hill said he and other politicians are doing all they can to help bring the cost of gasoline down, and he intends to work on a bill next week that will further address market manipulation.
Congress, he said, has already passed a number of bills that should have an impact at the pump, including one that will temporarily suspend sending oil to the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
He acknowledged today that the total savings could be as little as a nickel, or as much as a quarter a gallon, depending who you ask. “Every penny counts,” the 9th District congressman told a group gathered in the Bloomington Boys and Girls Club.
It isn’t the oil producers who are at fault, Hill said, but rather those who are purposely driving the price of oil up in the marketplace to profit from it.
“We’re going to get into the weeds on what exactly is going on with these traders who are speculating on future contracts,” Hill said. “This is causing the price of gasoline and the price of a barrel of oil to go up artificially. I’m told by economists that the price for a barrel of oil ought to be around $80 a barrel if you base it on supply and demand. But because these speculators are buying futures contracts in large volumes, it’s artificially increasing the price of a barrel of oil.”
“I think we need those regulations put back on place where they were in 2000,” Hill said. “In the year 2000, the Bush administration removed those regulations, so now these speculators are able to do anything that they want to do in order to drive that price up so they can make a lot of money. And that practice needs to stop.” George Bush ran for president in 2000, won the election in November, and was inaugurated in January 2001. The year 2000 was during the Clinton Administration, with Hill serving in Congress. So if any relief actually happened that year, it was a Democratic initiative.
I can't tell if Hill isn't capable of remembering simple facts, or if he's just making something up that he thinks his constituents aren't smart enough to see through. The way I see it, this is either ignorance, arrogance, or just plain old dishonesty.
linky: http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2008/05/30/news.qp-3084913.sto
Hill vows action on high oil prices
With gas prices at record highs, Indiana congressman Baron Hill said he and other politicians are doing all they can to help bring the cost of gasoline down, and he intends to work on a bill next week that will further address market manipulation.
Congress, he said, has already passed a number of bills that should have an impact at the pump, including one that will temporarily suspend sending oil to the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
He acknowledged today that the total savings could be as little as a nickel, or as much as a quarter a gallon, depending who you ask. “Every penny counts,” the 9th District congressman told a group gathered in the Bloomington Boys and Girls Club.
It isn’t the oil producers who are at fault, Hill said, but rather those who are purposely driving the price of oil up in the marketplace to profit from it.
“We’re going to get into the weeds on what exactly is going on with these traders who are speculating on future contracts,” Hill said. “This is causing the price of gasoline and the price of a barrel of oil to go up artificially. I’m told by economists that the price for a barrel of oil ought to be around $80 a barrel if you base it on supply and demand. But because these speculators are buying futures contracts in large volumes, it’s artificially increasing the price of a barrel of oil.”
“I think we need those regulations put back on place where they were in 2000,” Hill said. “In the year 2000, the Bush administration removed those regulations, so now these speculators are able to do anything that they want to do in order to drive that price up so they can make a lot of money. And that practice needs to stop.” George Bush ran for president in 2000, won the election in November, and was inaugurated in January 2001. The year 2000 was during the Clinton Administration, with Hill serving in Congress. So if any relief actually happened that year, it was a Democratic initiative.
I can't tell if Hill isn't capable of remembering simple facts, or if he's just making something up that he thinks his constituents aren't smart enough to see through. The way I see it, this is either ignorance, arrogance, or just plain old dishonesty.