Posted on 10/30/2006 4:39:00 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Bush’s Failed Energy Policies Lead To Record Profits For Oil Companies
Today, ExxonMobil announced that “its third-quarter earnings rose to $10.49 billion, the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company.” Royal Dutch Shell also “beat all forecasts with a 21 percent rise in underlying third-quarter profit.” These earnings reports come “as high crude prices this year have fueled record profits in the oil industry” which has triggered “an outcry from consumers who were being asked to pay about $3 a gallon for gasoline in early August.” [AP, 10/26/06; Reuters, 10/26/06]
“These record profits for oil companies while Americans still face sky-high gas prices, is one more example of the consequences of President Bush’s decision to let his friends in big oil write our nation’s energy policy,” said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. “While oil companies have received tax breaks, the pocketbooks of America's working families have been squeezed by a combination of rising energy costs and declining incomes. Americans are ready for a new direction. Democrats remain committed to reducing our dependency on foreign oil, and creating a robust domestic industry for alternative energy sources that will create jobs."
Under Bush, America's Dependence on Foreign Oil Has Increased. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush criticized the Clinton Administration for allowing U.S. imports on foreign oil to reach 56% of U.S. oil consumption. Five years after President Bush announced his energy plan, U.S. imports of foreign oil have risen to 65% of U.S. consumption. [House Government Reform Committee, Democratic Staff, 3/16/06]
American Families Are Spending Record Amounts for Energy - Nearly $2,000 More Per Family Than Five Years Ago. Five years ago, the average American family spent $3,300 on gasoline, home heating, and electricity. This year, the average American family will spend over $5,100 on gasoline, home heating, and electricity. This is an increase of nearly $2,000 per family. The indirect costs of higher energy prices in the form of higher prices for consumer goods and services are likely to cost families another $1,400 per year. [House Government Reform Committee, Democratic Staff, 3/16/06]
Energy Task Force Headed By Officials With Ties To Energy Industry. Bush stacked the energy task force with a number of officials with ties to the oil and energy industry. The head of the task force was Vice President Dick Cheney, who was the former chief executive officer of Halliburton, the oil services giant. Members include Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a former executive at Texas oil company Tom Brown; Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham who received almost half a million dollars in contributions from the oil and energy industry during his 2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate in Michigan; Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who received nearly $28,570 from the oil and gas companies for her 1996 run for U.S. Senate, the second largest total from any industry. [www.crp.org; New York Times, 1/30/01]
Source URL: http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/10/bushs_failed_en.php
They could try this:
Bush’s Failed Social Policies Lead To Record Profits For Middle Class.
They must have software that produces such utter nonsense.
I really wish them luck with this strategy. Especially since gas prices have dropped over a dollar a gallon over the past year.
So they won't mind if we drill ANWR,the Gulf, and offshore Ca. in order to drive down the price of oil, right?
You know better, where's the barf alert? ;-D
So Bush should have enacted policies that what, forcibly conviscate the profits of oil companies? Or Bush should have threatened with death anyone who drives more than 10 miles a day since it was CONSUMER DEMAND, not Bush, that bumped up profits.
I honest to God can't believe there's a single thinking soul in America who would vote for these fools.
Tax the oil companies and put them out of business. That will help increase the supply of oil - apparently.
What planet is this writer from...
I don't care if I pay $10 a gallon for gasoline -- just so long as those greedy oil companies don't make any record profits!!!!!!!!!
Nancy Pelosi still wants to push for excess profit taxes on the oil companies. She can't wait to get her hands on the money, and doesn't care if the consumers end up financing the tax. She thinks that the consumers are too dumb to blame the Democrats. I hope she isn't right.
Yup. Apparently record losses by the oil companies would be healthier for the Republic.
We're dealing with economic illiterates.
Another great announcement from the DNC
Blah-Blah Blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah.
That's what Bill O'Reilly has been suggesting.
Clean up on aisle 4.
With gas prices falling the way they are, I hope that Bush continues to blunder like this.
Democrats can't seem to grasp the concept of markets and
supply and demand.
Marxist.
dim lies and sins lead to party burning in hell forever!
LLS
O'Reilly is a populist who will say whatever he thinks is most popular with his audience. Don't get me wrong, I generally think he's an okay guy. But you can just see him adopting the simple-minded nonsense the rabble believes in order to keep his ratings up. O'Reilly is a really smart guy, too smart to sincerely hold some of the views he holds like the utterly untenable position that the oil companies are in some conspiracy to drive up prices. He understands market forces, supply and demand and surely the fact that over 30 Senate and House investigations have never uncovered any evidence of such collusion.
Anyway, O'Reilly is a decent guy and does some good work, but his constant pandering to sloppy thinking to keep his audience flattered at adopting his views is nauseating.
Not only do democrats count on an ignorant base, they presume it - and this is what verifies their blatant prejudice and disdain for minorities: Namely that minorities are stupid, ignorant and incapable of helping themselves so it falls to the democrats' good graces to save them from the Republican bogeymen.
They don't seem to care when the oil companies are operating in the red.
Exxon is a public stock. Why don'tthey go out and buy some?
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