Straight Talk about the Cost of Fuel at the Pump

[James Carder]

Everyone's concerned about the cost of gas at the pump and how this could be happening while oil companies like EXXON enjoy record profits.

For foreigners working in the Gulf, they can still fill up a car with a tank of gas for $8.50.

So, who's making a killing off all the oil being sold in the U.S.?

The transporters, of course.

And for that, look to the oil companies themselves who lie to our Congressional hearings on the matter and laugh all the way to the bank, taking the American people for a bunch of fools!

IMO, it's time to 'nationalize' our oil companies and make them pay for some of the benefits like a national health program at no cost to the public like many of the citizens of the Arab Gulf States enjoy.

And, if America squanders this moment to do so, the opportunity may be gone forever to have a national health program in America affordable to the people.

What is totally unacceptable from any candidate is a plan for health insurance that forces people to pay for something they can't afford to pay for as it is.

Which seems to be the democratic plan.

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Even Iraq is enjoying a huge windfall in oil profits while the American people are paying for the cost of reconstructing that country.

And, every dime we spend on this endeavor either comes from the American taxpayer or is borrowed from China and Japan and that debt is passed-on to future generations of Americans in the form of interest paid on the national debt.

Short of nationalizing our oil companies, no candidate of either party has a solution for the American people.

And that, folks, is the sad reality.

And to make it fair, let me say that if any candidate talks differently - they're lying.

Let's just put a stop to all the B.S. and if something looks like a 'spade', let's just call it what it is and quit fooling ourselves with people running for office who really haven't had any solution for dealing with our dilemma, except more taxes and more debt put on the shoulders of ourselves, our children and our children's children.

My belief is that high gas prices are here to stay, but they do not have to be here to stay without an affordable public health care system for all Americans that could operate beside the existing private health care system that would provide a safety net for all classes of Americans, not just the rich or financially well-off who only care right now about their system having political support.

No health system is the 'best' in the world if the majority of the people being served by it can't afford it.

Jim Carder (for the record)

[John McCain Volunteer Staff]

The Press never points out that the Oil Companies already contribute a massive portion of their profits to taxes.

[James Carder]

So what?

Let's inject a little 'Philosophy 101'.

I would rather see oil companys' profits paying for a health program for the American people than seeing their profits after taxes go into their own pockets.

Why should one group of people in our society be allowed to control a resource that is so essential and so critical to the survival of our civilization?

The oil companies and their stockholders prosper while the bulk of the American people suffer?

The practical thot is to 'put the fate of the nation first', and not the fate of the private interest(s) of the oil companies or their shareholders.

Isn't this already the philosophy of the John McCain Campaign...putting the nation first?

Okay...if we are going to put the nation first, let's put the nation first, not the oil companies.

They need to be 'put on notice', along with that government in Iraq.

And, all these oil interests need to stop taking 'us', the American people, 'for suckers!

Jim Carder (for the record)

[James Carder]

Double,

I think that any politician who spends any time in D.C. can get himself between a rock and a hard spot when it comes to the oil lobby...and I think that this is what this conversation is all about.

I would imagine that many aspiring Congressmen and Senators see the oil lobby as the 'pot at the end of the rainbow.'

But, for those who spend more time than they should in Congress, it could end-up being their demise.

Senator Stevens, a long-time friend of mine, is having his problems.

There'll probably be more in Congress to have problems like this before it's all over...

We've got the same problem with those who lobby for and take money under the table from the health care industry.

John McCain coined it right by saying 'Washington is broken'.

He understands what the problem is about.

The American people spend a lot of time and money electing people, who in the end, just sell themselves out to one lobby or another, forgetting who voted for them and why.

And, there are 'rewards' for doing this in Washington, if you have the sense enough to get out before it catches up to you.

The problem is, some get as addicted to power as they do to money and don't know when to split.

And they are those who can end up in disgrace.

A man reaps what he sows.

What goes around, comes around.

What I admire in John McCain is his resiliency.

But I would imagine that he, like many others, fears the oil lobby.

There's just too damned much money involved with it.

I mean...the oil companies pay oil execs such big bucks just to sit there and lie straight-faced to the American Congress and there's not a damned thing that Congress can do about it.

And that's because Congress is generally afraid of the oil lobby...

...of losing all those bucks, or of being exposed.

But, what Congress needs to do to prove its integrity to the American people is put its foot down and put an end to all of it...

...and nationalize our oil companies and bring their financial holdings that are abroad, home.

Then, before oil profits are spent in any other way, set up a national health system for the American people that is affordable to all of the people...and any remaining monies after that...start paying down on the national debt.

Oh, 'What do I think of my good friend Ted Stevens?'

Ted has done a lot of good things for Alaska and probably doesn't deserve the crap he's being put through.

Yes, I admit, he's been one of the biggest pork-barrelers in Congress...but by being the bulldozer of Congress, he has managed to do a lot for the State of Alaska to balance things up after the Lower '48' and the oil companies practically raped the State to get to its oil on the North Slope.

Meanwhile, politics in Alaska have also been corrupted because of the oil lobby that has effected the operation of State Government...and this is what has gotten Ted and his son in trouble.

Which shows how a man who tries to take care of his own in a murky political climate can get himself into trouble.

On the other hand, if you are a President or CEO of a large corporation, nothing would be thought of the kind of activities that he has been accused of.

And, which of us would have preferred that our own fathers would had done a little more to help us out in life?

We live in a culture that says a father is lacking when he doesn't.

That puts a man with power under a lot of temptation, when he can do something to effect the lives of those he loves, and doesn't.

And this is why I do not believe that Ted Stevens has done anything wrong...unless anyone is willing to agree that being human and trying to be a good father to his son, is wrong.

IMO, Ted's only fault is that he has stayed too long in Congress on Alaska's behalf and too many back in his home State now want his job, even if they have to ruin his career and legacy to take it away from him.

I know about Alaska, I am from Alaska!