When you stop and take a step back and look at our domestic economy and see all the things going on that are impacting the lives of so many people and their families, and you listen to our President and other elected officials in Washington, you can not help but wonder, are we all living in the same country?
Yesterday I watched the President’s press conference before watching Chairman Ben Bernanke answer questions before the Senate Banking Committee. A reporter asked the President about the prospect for gas prices reaching $4 a gallon by this summer. The President acted like the reporter was from another planet. He seemed shocked that gasoline may cost $4 a gallon this summer. This morning I was reading an article about the price of crude oil and what OPEC may or may not do, when I noticed a photograph next to the story that showed a gas station in San Mateo, California with gas prices posted at $4.23, $4.33 and $4.43 a gallon. It is February, not summer, and at one gas station in the United States the price of gas is over $4! Now we all realize that the President of the United States doesn’t pump his own gas. (But, on the other hand, perhaps he should.) The leadership in the White House goes about their business without the slightest acknowledgement as to what ordinary people are facing.
At what point will the strain that the high price of gas is causing for so many, grab the attention of those that don’t pump their own gas? The list of problems we are facing in the coming months is long. Housing and the fall off in new home construction is big. The sub-prime mortgage mess and the fallout from the rating agencies’ “errors” is big. The amount of money we are spending around the world helping people with their problems, plus the billions of dollars being spent in Iraq, places a huge tax on our time and resources. How bad do things have to get before our leadership starts paying attention in a consistent and meaningful way. We already have more people in prison than any other nation for our population. There are economic costs to not dealing with our problems. Is this where we will spend our resources? Is prison construction our next big growth industry?
The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 is a good start, but I haven’t heard a word about what the price of gas is doing to family budgets or the fallout from crude oil now trading over $100 a barrel. I have written about this almost all week. I guess it is time to give it a rest.
Saturday is a good day for art. Stay tuned.
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2 comments:
Hi Moneythoughts,
Prisons- one of my fears is that it will become obvious that prison labor could be utilized brutally as it is in China to the benefit of our economy. Cheap labor at home, instead of abroad. But that is a horrible idea. An incentive to imprison people, coupled with a government that has become more and more instrusive, and wildly unaccountable, is downright dangerous to common folk.
But if it crossed my mind, it's crossed others.
Yes, I do think the Washingtonians live in a bubble. Perhaps Bush looked so bewlidered at that question as it was unscripted or unanticipated by his handlers. I wonder if that reporter will get invited back.
Gas costs almost four dollars by me now.
This has been a terrible administration, and they have almost one more year. The only thing they can hang their hat on is that we haven't suffered another attack. Iraq was handled badly. The way the economy is going, it will be the dominate issue in the election. Ask your history professor husband, few if any Presidential elections were decided over foreign policy issues. It has always been the economy stupid. Bill Clinton was not the first to figure that out. We have had since 1973, a chance to put together a policy that would reduce our dependency on foreign oil and our leaders have pissed the opportunity away. This economy will eventually grind almost to a complete halt. People that use mass transportation like subways will continue to buy, but those of use that drive a lot to malls and super stores will almost certainly cut back. Summer could get ugly, be careful.
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