Bias, when you say "taxes", you almost say it gleefully - let me ask you a few questions to rub that "tax and spend" smirk off your face... First, when YOU say raise taxes, I'm going to assume you are talking about corporate and not middle income taxes. With that assumption, don't you realize when you raise corporate taxes you are really raising costs to the consumers (customers) of those corporations? Corporations are not going to allow their profit margins to shrink if their taxes are raised! Therefore, they always pass along the expense to the consumer, so hence your CORPORATE tax rate increase really is a killer cost HIKE to the consumer (middle and lower income people) - How does that help us? Secondly, you say we are spending trillions of dollars we don't have on the war (which is absolutely correct). What makes you think that we can shift that spending to alternative energy/Infrastructure when WE STILL DON'T HAVE that money to begin with? So you're saying that massive deficit spending is OK if they have "good intentions" with the money? Where is the logic in that? And thirdly, assuming that we do redistribute those trillions in war funds to infrastructure/alternate energy resources here at home - doesn't that just mean we give what you liberals like to call "corporate welfare" (subsidies) to multi-national energy corporations? Aren't they the ones in control of developing these "green" technologies? This sounds a lot like robbing Peter to pay Paul - and it seems to me that Liberals rationalize this thinking because their "intentions" are more noble or of better quality than the Conservatives. Sounds and looks to me that its the same old game with the same old results its just the Liberals friends and partners benefitting from our tax dollars rather than the Conservatives - How is that CHANGE in any way? I appreciate your answer to these questions! :)

by bobo1 on 07/15/2008 06:26:12 PM EST

[ Parent ]

The true cost of gasoline is actually far higher than $4 a gallon. 

Yes, that's partly because the price per gallon doesn't reflect the subsidies we give to oil companies but that's not even what I'm referring to.

I'm referring to the billions of dollars we spend each year just to protect our oil interests.  Add to that the health problems created by burning fossil fuels (increased rates of asthma, bronchitis and even cancer) and the true cost of a gallon of gas is easily double what we think we pay at the pump or more.

As usual the oil companies externalize costs that end up being paid by Joe Taxpayer.

So the oil we think is so cheap is not nearly as cheap as we think it is. Alternative energy production will be more expensive in the short/medium term yes, but the price gap is not as large as it appears to be.

by Tom Hanc on 07/15/2008 04:52:09 PM EST

[ Parent ]

To watch credibility, one must have creditability and in Kens case that is a dubious proposition at best:

MRFred: “And no one said oil companies will lose their profits.”
Here's a recent exchange between Maxine Waters (D, CA) and the CEO of Shell Oil. Maurice Hinchey (D, NY) says we should nationalize the refineries.

What I sad was

And no one said oil companies will lose their profits.We just don't need to give away the farm...like the Rethugs propose, holding the lower gasoline price carrot in front of our faces. 

As far as Maxine Waters goes,  good for her..thats one opinion, highly unlikely, as you well know , much like another extremist position, I'm sure you will recognize it

 

It’s time to quit your lying and bullshitting you old fool. This is about getting Democrats the hell out of the way and allowing oil companies to drill, EVERYWHERE!! Shut the fuck up about your environmentally sensitive icebergs and your pristine rockies and your endangered brine shrimp. Kne TX

Of course I'm sure all Americans want oil wells everywhere.

MRFred: “Why should we sign over our offshore reserves to the big oil companies for a few campaign contributions.”
Government contracts can be written to give one of every four barrels produced to the government, or payment in kind.

 Thats true..they can be written...but in a Republican world they wont be...another set of sweet deals. The Republicans simply don't collect the money or conveniently forget about it...

The Interior Department’s program to collect billions of dollars annually from oil and gas companies that drill on federal lands is troubled by mismanagement, ethical lapses and fears of retaliation against whistle-blowers, the department’s chief independent investigator has concluded.

Prepared by the Interior Department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, the report said that investigators found a “profound failure” in the agency’s technology for monitoring oil and gas payments.

It suggested that the agency was too cozy with oil companies and that internal critics had good reason to fear punishment.

“It demonstrates a Band-Aid approach to holding together one of the federal government’s largest revenue-producing operations,” Mr. Devaney concluded.

 

Now to distort a thought one must take every thing out of context their entire passage explains the opinion better than Kens distortion:

 

And no one said oil companies will lose their profits.We just don't need to give away the farm...like the Rethugs propose, holding the lower gasoline price carrot in front of our faces.

Thats what they want...why should we sign over our offshore reserves to the big oil companies for a few campaign contributions.

No, if we are going to open up offshore reserves, it should be for domestic consumption only...not dumped into the big oil pool to be sold to speculators and China.

Now, for some Ken credibility checks

If the U.S. is paying a very high price for oil, why would a producer ship oil produced off the Mississippi Gulf Coast all the way to China, when they could sell it to the Chevron refinery in Pascagoula?

Easy, So they can get an even higher price from China. Much like the big oil companies are doing now, attempting push trough a pipeline to the west coast of the US from Alberta  so they can ship oil sand products to China bypassing the US, who is the customer of choice , for now. Also, these are global corporations, not Americana companies...they have no loyalty or interest in solving our energy problem. Just profits.

 

 

by MRFred on 07/16/2008 07:41:22 AM EST

[ Parent ]

SUCK MY DICK!

ha ha

by BENS MISSING GOATEE on 07/16/2008 01:04:13 PM EST

[ Parent ]