Democrats, oil and guns

In 1979, Jimmy Carter gave his famous “Malaise Speech” in which he announced that the US had an oil crisis and he outlined his plan to correct it. Gasoline had gone from about $.30/gallon to nearly a dollar in the space of about six years and it was mainly because of the OPEC nations and their delight at holding the US economy hostage. Carter promised that America would never be dependent on foreign oil;

Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 — never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade — a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.

Carter went on to promise;

We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.

With that, Carter formed the Energy Department and it’s all been downhill since. The Democrats have blocked every proposal to build refineries, to drill oil in Alaska or off our coastlines. We’ve been so dependent on foreign oil that this week, the Democrat Senate has demanded that the President threaten the end of Middle East military aid until those nations increase production, according to the Wall Street Journal;

Speaking of energy, we can’t help but give more attention to a recent press release from some of the Senate’s leading liberals. Charles Schumer, Byron Dorgan, Bernie Sanders, Bob Casey and Mary Landrieu are demanding that President Bush tell OPEC nations to increase their oil supplies or risk losing arms deals with the United States. The Senators say U.S. consumers need the price relief that only increased oil production can bring.

Yes, that Senator Schumer and that Senator Dorgan, both of whom voted against increasing U.S. oil production because they couldn’t abide drilling across 1% of Alaska’s wilderness. Yes, that Senator Casey, who has called for mandatory reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide. At least Senator Landrieu of Louisiana has fought to allow more offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

All of these Senate Democrats are willing to accept greater carbon emissions, as long as we can also outsource jobs in the petroleum industry to Middle Eastern dictatorships.

Quite a contrast between what Democrats say and what Democrats do. Jimmy Carter formed the Energy Department to wean us off of foreign oil, and the current Senate wants us increase our dependence on foreign oil. It seems to me that the best way to lower prices of gas would have been to follow the Bush energy proposals seven years ago instead of playing keep-away with investigations into the participants of the Vice President’s advisers.

The Democrats can’t see past the ends of their collective nose; they want “alternate fuels” but they fail to see the reality of our current energy needs. They’re all about intentions without a thought to the results of their intentions in the interim.

Just for the record, I’m all for cutting military aid to the Middle East, but it’s been my experience that people who want to buy guns and can’t buy them from us will just go somewhere elese.

Category: Economy, Foreign Policy, Politics