The Hill Street Blahg

Just this week, the outrageous Cap and Trade Bill, which is based on the global warming hoax, went down to a colossal defeat in Congress. Thankfully and unbelievably so, the Republicans in Congress joined hands to oppose this Democrat supported bill and it was put to bed. This may sound like good news now, but expect this bill to rear it’s ugly head again next year should the Democrats win the White House along with a veto-proof Congress in November. Unfortunately for anyone who buys gasoline, both Democrat Barack Obama and quasi Republican John McCain support the Cap and Trade legislation. The long and the short of it…bend over and grab your ankles because it isn’t going to get any better, as far as fuel prices go, with either one of these guys as President and a Democrat controlled Congress.

With $4.00 a gallon gasoline prices at the pump, this ludicrous bill was estimated to add an additional $.75 to the cost of a gallon of gasoline. In addition to that, another by-product of the bill was an enormous increase in additional tax revenues to the imperial federal government which guaranteed corruption, allocation loopholes, more pork to keep them in office, along with five more levels of government bureaucracy we certainly don’t need.

Why can’t Congress swallow the bitter pill and do what needs to be done? We must tap our vast oil reserves within our own country, build new refineries, and build more nuclear power plants. Once Congress gives the green light to these obvious solutions, the world oil markets will respond favorably and prices will drop. All Congress can come up with is to taxing the bejesus out of us.

Blogger John at the Power Line Blog had this interesting posting last week along with some inexcusable, yet telling House Congressional statistics regarding America’s energy policies. Come on folks…when are we going to wake up and demand more out of these people?

For several decades, the Democratic Party has pursued policies designed to drive up the cost of petroleum, and therefore gas at the pump. Remarkably, the Democrats don’t seem to have taken much of a political hit from the current spike in gas prices. Probably that’s because most people don’t realize how different the two parties’ energy policies have been.

Congressman Roy Blunt put together these data to highlight the differences between House Republicans and House Democrats on energy policy:

ANWR Exploration House Republicans: 91% Supported House Democrats: 86% Opposed

Coal-to-Liquid
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 78% Opposed

Oil Shale Exploration
House Republicans: 90% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed

Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Exploration
House Republicans: 81% Supported
House Democrats: 83% Opposed

Refinery Increased Capacity
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 96% Opposed

SUMMARY

91% of House Republicans have historically voted to increase the production of American-made oil and gas.

86% of House Democrats have historically voted against increasing the production of American-made oil and gas.

PAUL adds: It’s useful to keep this sort of thing in mind when we hear (on something like a daily basis these days) that the Republicans have run out of ideas or that Republican ideas didn’t work. The truth is that most major Republican ideas weren’t tried because the Democrats blocked them. Increasing the domestic production of oil and gas (a move so obvious it barely meets the standard for being an idea) is hardly the only example. Social security reform and school choice also come quickly to mind. Republican-backed policies for increasing the number of Americans with health insurance were also blocked by Democrats. And so forth.