The Issue Is Not Over

With gas prices lowering in the past couple of weeks Gallup polling has showed that what was once considered the biggest economic concern for 1 out of 4 Americans is now down 15% according to an article released by The Dallas Morning News. If gas prices continue to lower the issue of oil prices will become just one more forgotten issue for this election, which is a serious problem. Should we now stop efforts to expand domestic, offshore oil drilling because there has been a substantial drop in the price of oil? No! This is a fluctuating market, and while gas prices are down now that does not mean they will not skyrocket tomorrow. The high prices of oil over mid-summer confirmed that we need to end our dependency on foreign oil and explore off our coasts and in the Artic Natural Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), and that shouldn’t change just because we are experiencing a moment of relief from the gas prices we were experiencing a month ago. The need for energy independence is still there.

On Wednesday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and other House Republicans sent a letter to twenty-two House Democrats who have expressed support of further expansion of offshore oil drilling before, but continue to vote with Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to essentially ‘put up or shut up’ according to the blog The Crypt of the Politico. Republicans are calling on House Democrats to work with them in a bipartisan effort to pass an “all of the above” energy plan that would incorporate not only a wide expansion in domestic, offshore drilling, but will also explore domestically any an all available sources of fuel and energy with the goal of gaining energy independence. For weeks Congressmen like Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and John Boehner have been pushing for such a plan to be adopted, but Nancy Pelosi has her own plan. Speaker Pelosi said that she would be willing to support a plan that would allow some drilling off the outer continental shelf, and would overturn tax breaks for oil companies. Essentially Pelosi wants to apply heavier taxation without actually doing anything to help lower the price of oil. Oil companies will not be the only ones seeing a tax increase, but every American. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), if elected president, has promised to take the money gained from the increase of taxes on oil companies and redistribute it as part of his plan to promote his socialist agenda.

Senator Obama and other Democratic leaders have heavily criticized the Republican Party accusing them of being bought off by Big Oil. Obama has mentioned the millions in contributions that John McCain (R-AZ) has received from oil executives, but has failed to mention the over half a million that he himself has received from Big Oil. Democrats mounted a Exxon-McCain 08’ mock campaign to promote their propaganda that Sen. McCain and his fellow Republicans are deep in the pockets of the major oil companies, but if you look at campaign donations it would be more appropriate to call it Exxon-Obama, because Obama has received more donations from Exxon employees than McCain, but Barack Obama does not want you to think about this. The only congressional leaders who are looking after the American people right now are the House Republicans who continue to hold the ghost session calling on Nancy Pelosi to call the House back into session to allow an up or down vote on a comprehensive energy plan that would work to end our dependency on foreign sources for oil and energy.

John McCain should by no means be looked at as the champion for offshore expansion in oil drilling, because just three months ago he we was publicly against it, and has since changed his mind on the issue. He is, however, still against drilling in ANWR. He has already flip-flopped on this issue once, and who is to say that he will not do it again? McCain hasn’t exactly had the best record of consistency during his long political career on Capital Hill, and his tendency to change his stance and embrace liberal positions on various issues has not given conservatives much reason to have much faith in the senator from Arizona.

Sen. Barack Obama has also changed his position on oil and offshore drilling. Obama originally was against tapping into our oil reserves, and now he believes that in an extreme circumstance we should, which begs the question: What does Obama view as an extreme circumstance? He originally opposed offshore drilling, but now says that he might support legislation that would allow for more offshore drilling if the bill also included a windfall profits tax (Remember: making profit is a bad thing) on oil companies, a thousand dollar energy rebate plan for lower-income Americans (redistribution of wealth), and Congress investing a substantial amount of money in renewable energy. Oh, and it may be important to point out that Obama plans on raising your taxes to get the large amount of money that he wants the government to invest in renewable energy. Liberals and Democrats (including their messiah Barack Obama) have a goal, and that goal is to profit off the suffering of the American people. They want to tax you more, but not do anything about high gas and energy prices.