Archive → March, 2010
Obama policy: $7/gallon gas
A new Harvard study is that the Obama Administration’s emissions goals for so-called greenhouse gases, which he wants reduced by 14 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2020, would result in boosting the cost of gas to a staggering seven dollars a gallon, more than four dollars above current prices.
The bulk of the increase would arise not from oil shortages, supply chain challenges or even war in the Middle East, but simply from new, confiscatory increases to fuel taxes, sufficient to drive most low- and middle-income Americans out of their cars and force them economically onto transportation.
The naivety of such a policy, however, is readily apparent to anyone who understands market economics, as well as anyone who remembers what nearly $4.00/gallon gas did to our economy in 2008. To wit: we’re still recovering from the economic slow-down it caused.
To make matters worse, gas at seven dollars a gallon would skyrocket inflation to unheard-of levels and force even the middle-class into the category of the “working poor,” effectively killing off most small businesses.
Real bright idea, Obama… go sell insurance quotes to Acorn and leave the country alone, will ya?
Perry prevails in GOP primary
Two-term incumbent GOP Texas Governor Rick Perry fended off strong challenges from three-term GOP Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Tea Party activist Debra Medina to secure his party’s nomination for an unprecedented third term.
Perry, who has embraced the Tea Party Movement and anti-Obama sentiment, secured 51 percent of his party’s support, followed by 31 percent for the more liberal Hutchinson, and around 18 percent for the more conservative-leaning Medina. None of them seem including toward selling life insurance, so Hutchinson will continue in her Senate seat while Medina made a strong enough showing to be heard from again.
However, Perry holds several distinctions; even without a third-term, he’s the longest-serving governor in Texas history and will face former Houston mayor Bill White in the fall in a bid to extend his reign. Perry’s first term was relatively quiet but as the Bush presidency was ending, he emerged from his predecessor’s shadow to become a strong conservative voice.
At a Tea Party meeting last summer, Perry even gave voice to Texas independence if Obama’s strong-arm federal approach didn’t tone done… a note he struck again in his victory speech Tuesday night.
