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Gas Prices Hit $4 a Gallon, Workers Set for Week of Action |
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Yesterday was marked by a striking economic event: For the first time ever in this nation, the average price for a gallon of gas hit $4.
The price of fuel is driving up prices for other goods and services as well, putting a serious squeeze on working families at a time when wages are stagnant and unemployment is rising sharply. Gas prices are choking off the American dream.
This week, union members around the country will hit the streets for rallies raising awareness of our current economic crisis and how hard they’re being hit by spiraling gas prices.
It’s clear that oil companies are the winner, and working families are losing out. Since President Bush took office, gas prices have risen from $1.47 a gallon to more than $4. Bush’s administration has done all it can to protect Big Oil’s profits—in fact, the top five oil companies have made $525 billion in profits under Bush. Last year, ExxonMobil made $40 billion in profits—the largest single-year profit ever made by a U.S. company. Oil industry leaders are getting big pay packages, and passing the cost on to drivers at the pump.
Unfortunately, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, hasn’t put forth a plan that will address the crisis. Instead, he’s proposed a tax plan that will give $3.8 billion in tax cuts to the biggest oil companies while creating a new tax on workers’ health benefits. The oil industry CEOs would reap the benefits, and workers won’t get the relief they need.
Union members nationwide will demand that McCain listen to working families, not the oil industry and its lobbyists.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says that the issue of gas prices is central to the struggles of working families.
Working people are getting battered in today’s economy, and they’re fed up with business as usual. It’s more than the gas prices. The economy is bleeding jobs and people’s stagnant paychecks can’t cover the grocery and housing bills. Record gas prices are part of a much larger problem – leaders like Bush and McCain have handed the reins of the economy over to Big Oil and other corporate interests whose only concern is maximizing their profit margins.
At McCain Revealed, we’ve posted a fact sheet detailing the Bush/McCain record on oil and gas, as well as a flier about McCain’s connections to the oil industry and his plans to give tax breaks to oil companies. Check back to find out about the events that will take place around the country.
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All of us know that Tennessee families are being hit hard by sky-high gasoline and diesel prices.
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Although Lamar Alexander may want to hear from his constituents, perhaps he may want to hear from the rest of the country? Tennessee is not the only one suffering!
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If you’d be willing to share your story, please take a few minutes to send me an e-mail at gasprices@alexander.senate.gov with a paragraph or two about how your family is affected by gas prices. Please include your name, address, and a phone number where my office can reach you if I have any questions. I’ll share some of these stories on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
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Lamar Alexander
United States Senator
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The lame duck president states before leaving the country AGAIN, to solve the gas crisis is to begin drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. What does he think will come out? gasoline? HE is so out of touch with reality.
If people are so angry about the gas prices why is it that not many of them seem to be slowing down on the highways? I have an economical Hyundai Elantra and even I have slowed down. But when I’m on the interstate going 60mph other vehicles, 4-wheelers as well as the big rigs, blow past me like I’m sitting still. Yeah, it takes me a few minutes longer to get where I’m going but it’s costing me less.
The big oil companies are making huge profits, that’s true. But IMO the real culprits in this huge increase are the speculators. They’re getting rich while the rest of us suffer the pain of the high prices they’re creating and perpetuating. I hope how soon this ‘oil bubble’ pops and leaves them high and dry!
The oil companies make $0.08 profit on each dollar, that’s a hell of a lot less than any other industry especially bottled water that’s now going for $85.00 a gallon. Do you know how many gallons of gas is pumped into our cars and trucks to get 40 billion profit. If we had started drilling in ANWR 8 years ago when it was proposed that oil would be being refined now and have it as gas in our tanks and gas would be cheaper. Every time a national energy policy has been proposed it has been shot down by the DemocRATic congress. Every proposed oil exploration, new refinery, pipe line, and gas terminal has the liberals lining up to shoot it down. You can thank your fellow liberals and DemocRATic congress for high gas prices.
I’ll tell you what scares the hell out of me, it’s union members who are ignorant of economic reality.
I don’t know if your numbers are correct, but I do agree that the congress has stood in the way of any common sense energy policy for years, both sides of the aisle. The environmentalists are to blame for this as well. I remember sitting in gas lines back in the early 70’s and here we are some 35 years later still at the mercy of unstable foreign countries for our energy needs. We need to push the government out of the way and get down to business.
‘inspector3500′ - Hey, maybe 8 cents on a dollar doesn’t ’seem’ like a lot of money in profits, but it really is. That’s 8% - that’s significant. Besides if you look at the bottom line figures and you see how many billions of dollars the oil companies take in as profits, you can get a better understanding of the bigger picture. Besides, let me make 8% interest on my meager savings account, and I just might be able to save some real money.
Solving the gasoline crisis is not about pumping more oil. It’s about conserving our natural resources, from the oil in the ground to the places it gets drilled. The fact that our country has not put aggressive conservation, environmentally friendly policies to work has more to do with politics than with economic common sense. Don’t blames liberals or unions or Democrats for the huge price of gasoline. Blame, instead, those individuals who have profited so heavily by inflated oil prices that they have done everything in their power to KEEP THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE, and you know who I am talking about. What most Americans, scientists, and economists understand is that the best way to help this country is to start thinking about LONG TERM goals that will not only aid in the recovery of our bleak economy, but in the health and sustainability of our planet. Without the the desire and resolve to seek proactive solutions to remedy both these situations, we will continue to sink deeper and deeper to a point where there may no longer be a return.
Any one who votes for McCain in November deserves to pay $4 a gallon for gasoline. I think all those who voted for Bush got exactly what they voted for. HOWEVER, for the rest of us who are smart enough to know what is really going on, we have got to encourage others to think smarter and be smarter in the decisions we make, that will ultimately affect the future of this country. As it is, we are in a downhill spiral, economically, socially and politically and it is going to take a lot of work and a lot of action to turn the tide. I sincerely hope we can.
And PS, drilling in the Arctic is a very BAD idea. It’s just political talk trying to appease the masses. I really hope no one is buying it.
Oh no! call homeland security! This blog has been invaded by a bushite, inspector 3500! Sounds like you are still a bush loyalist and will vote for John McSame! The lame duck president has asked OPEC to increase production. OPEC knows he has no credibility, and told him no. Now, the Republican’ts voted to give oil companies tax breaks on top of their massive profits. Recent hearings in Washington turned up nothing as big oil “justified” their profits and tax breaks. Congress has done nothing, today I hear they want a windfall tax on oil. Republican’ts will show their loyalty to the black gold companies and vote no. ANWR is a pristine area and should be left alone. Republican’ts don’t care if it gets polluted. And do you honestly think gas would be cheaper if it had been drilled yrs. ago? Supply and demand, you want it, you pay for it!
Come on November, get these losers out of office.
All I can say is Thanks dubya, for f—ing up the nation!