Blame Bush Now, Suckas.......

[Mike]

"Totallarity"?

NEW YORK (AP) — Gasoline prices have never been higher this time of the year.

At $3.53 a gallon, prices are already up 25 cents since Jan. 1. And experts say they could reach a record $4.25 a gallon by late April.

"You're going to see a lot more staycations this year," says Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. "When the price gets anywhere near $4, you really see people react."

Already, W. Howard Coudle, a retired machinist from Crestwood, Mo., has seen his monthly gasoline bill rise to $80 from about $60 in December. The closest service station is selling regular for $3.39 per gallon, the highest he's ever seen.

"I guess we're going to have to drive less, consolidate all our errands into one trip," Coudle says. "It's just oppressive."

The surge in gas prices follows an increase in the price of oil.

Oil around the world is priced differently. Brent crude from the North Sea is a proxy for the foreign oil that's imported by U.S. refineries and turned into gasoline and other fuels. Its price has risen 11 percent so far this year, to around $119 a barrel, because of tensions with Iran, a cold snap in Europe and rising demand from developing nations. West Texas Intermediate, used to price oil produced in the U.S., is up 4 percent to around $103 a barrel. That's 19 percent higher than a year earlier.

Higher gas prices could hurt consumer spending and curtail the recent improvement in the U.S. economy.

A 25-cent jump in gasoline prices, if sustained over a year, would cost the economy about $35 billion. That's only 0.2 percent of the total U.S. economy, but economists say it's a meaningful amount, especially at a time when growth is only so-so. The economy grew 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter, a rate considered modest following a recession.

Gas prices are already an issue in the presidential campaign. Republican candidate Newt Gingrich spoke several times this week about opening up more federal land to oil and gas drilling as a path toward U.S. energy independence — and lower pump prices.

 

[MsSage]

You have to add $1 to the price of fuel. The quarter fuel tax is going up in most states. Tolls are going up. In California there is a additive you have to add for the exhaust to go into then burn.....
All of these factors are driving up cost of everything from food, clothes, tools, EVERYTHING.
It has gotten to the point owner operator can NOT pay the taxes and fuel cost let alone have any money left for food for themselves.
Shoer is leaving the company he has driven for the past 10 years and is planning on selling the truck he has worked so long and hard to buy.
I keep telling him to keep the truck and park it and go drive in the oil fields. Then buy a trailer and haul hay or whatever to stay busy and pay bills.
We have been working towards our goal for over 6 years. I know we are days away from the final stretch but my heart breaks for those who have just started out and have such a slim chance of surviving let alone reaching their goal.

I know I can make it with what little driving I do. If all else fails I can carpool or last but not least Holly will get me there LOL I know a lady who works nights so we can horse pool LOLOLOL
I know I and 2 other ladies are going to have one big garden then we will can together. They already have a flock of chickens and I am getting my first chicks in a couple weeks. Since I have a bigger pasture we have talked about getting a milk cow...not sure on that cuz if things work out shoer wants to move back to Idaho. But that is in at least a year if not 2. depends on the economy.

 

[hypocritexposer]

If Bush would open up and dump 1/3 the Strategic Reserve on the market tomorrow- and work to close the speculation loopholes like Newt has called for- it would go down a lot more than that....

But then he would have to put the public and the country ahead of his elitist rich investor and oil buddies....

What's funny is the main thing the Dems were interested in was saving ANWR. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Yep- and GW worrying about giving his oil buddies a big tax break so they could have record profits- and neither one of them giving a damn about the American people...

Mike I see feeders were down as much as $1.45 today too...Are you set up to handle $5-6-7+ fuel and $70-80 calves? Because as that price of fuel goes up- the calf market drops accordingly...

I could care less- lease away- but leasing out every bit of ground in America, including your back yard, won't produce an ounce of gas for 5-10 years....There are thousands of acres of oil company leased property out there- that they are doing nothing with now :roll: And the Congress can't agree on a law requiring them to use them or lose them on Federal leases :shock:

And you don't want to know if speculation/hoarding and its market manipulation, as testified to by ALL (excepting the Bush crew) is creating a major distortion in the price (as much as 1/3) is causing the country the pain they are having which some are now saying could lead to US economic collapse ? :???:

Production costs 1/3
Increased Oil company Profiteering (supply and demand) 1/3
Investor speculation/hoarding 1/3

Well GW's frenchkissing the Arab Swami's must not have impressed them- because it didn't work :???: :wink: :lol: In fact his Arab buddies told him the same thing that all those testifying to Congress did- that raising the production amount will not lower the prices by much - that the biggest problems are the fast shrinking dollar ( that shrinks more everytime the oil prices go up again) and runaway unregulated speculators raping the US public while profiteering by the $Billions.....

Maybe GW needs to go to plan B- like allowing/ordering the CFTC to begin immediately doing oversight and investigating these oil speculators- making their operations open and transparent to the world- and working to put back the regulation that worked for 78 years prior to 2000 by enforcing the Enron Loophole section of the new Farm Bill.....

Remember ol GW was the one who ran on the promise that he would work bipartisanly for the best of America and all of us....Maybe its time he start showing this by working on a bipartisan plan to help the public- rather than his elitist banker and oil buddies....

Well the dow is back up to where it was before the Bush bust now. GM had their highest profits ever in 2011. Chrysler has paid up all of their bailout money already. When I sold steers in January my check was $30,000 bigger then my 2011 check. Same number of steers sold at same time and same weight. Oh and 2011 was the best year ever too until 2012 came along.

Why is it that if you are a Republican you can't say anything good about the economy if a Democrat is president?