The Political Voices of Women

How Bad Are Gas Prices Hurting You? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog)

How high are gas prices where you live? How bad are record high gas prices hurting you and your family? Have you needed to cut back on your driving? Has the cost of gas affected your ability to buy food or medication?

From The New York Times…

Gasoline prices reached a national average of $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, adding more strain to motorists across the country.

But the pain is not being felt uniformly. Across broad swaths of the South, Southwest and the upper Great Plains, the combination of low incomes, high gas prices and heavy dependence on pickup trucks and vans is putting an even tighter squeeze on family budgets.

Here in the Mississippi Delta, some farm workers are borrowing money from their bosses so they can fill their tanks and get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes.

People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel. Gasoline theft is rising. And drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money.

The disparity between rural America and the rest of the country is a matter of simple home economics. Nationwide, Americans are now spending about 4 percent of their take-home income on gasoline. By contrast, in some counties in the Mississippi Delta, that figure has surpassed 13 percent.

As a result, gasoline expenses are rivaling what families spend on food and housing.

From Pam at Pam’s Coffee Conversation…

It was inevitable — the Era of $4.00+/gal gasoline is officially here. And it may not entirely be a bad thing.

After months of debate on the floors of Congress, it seems that the politicos in Washington are no closer to being honest with the American public that before. The GOP wants to convince you that if only the oil companies were allowed to drill in ANWR and off the coasts of Florida and California that gasoline prices will come down. They want you to believe that Exxon will choose to only supply oil to US consumer if a foreign entity like China or India offers to buy it at a higher price. Do you believe that Exxon will turn down a profit?

The Democrats want to convince you that they will one day find the gumption to take on “Big Oil” and their windfall profits and government subsidies.

What neither side of the aisle wants to tell the American public is that it’s time to get a new attitude about fossil fuel consumption. Proposals like drilling in ANWR and a gasoline tax can only offer temporary relief from pump prices, at best. In order to address America’s fuel needs Americans need to begin rethinking how they live and even where they live.

From Off The Cuff…

While I do know that because the greedy oil jerks in the middle east are sending the prices through the roof as in $138 a barrel and telling us that the reason is demand, it is also evident that they could, if they so chose, drop the price just as fast according to demand. Just as evident, is the fact that the greedy oil companies in this country could, if they so chose, drop the price of gas at the pump so that the financial bleeding that’s going on could have a breather. At this time, AAA says that the national average on gas is $4 a gallon. Is this criminal or what?

The problem that I see is that though congress has some say in this, they are doing nothing or nearly nothing. Although they had the top 5 CEOs of the greedy oil companies in front of them for a big show, the truth is that congress apparently cannot afford, in an election year, to piss off the oil companies so they put on the show and let us all hang by our fingernails.

Also See:

How High Will Gas Prices Go?

Skyrocketing Gas Prices

What Is The Real Reason Gas Prices Are So High