Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal: A Lack Of Wisdom

Governor Jindal has once again displayed a lack of wisdom and his ignorance of the facts.  In his speech last month in his reply to President Obama's speech to the nation Jindal said, "Democratic legislation is larded with wasteful spending.  It includes $140 million for something called volcano monitoring.  Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.

 

The recent eruption of Mount Redoubt in Alaska brought the story to light.  It was pointed out that only $7.5 million is going to be spent on upgrading  equipment used to monitor Mt. Redoubt and 32 other active volcanoes in Alaska, not $140 million as Jindal said.  The governor can not seem to get his facts straight before he opens his mouth. 

 

When Jindal was in congress, he and his fellow republicans failed to monitor the eruption of Bush's record deficit spending and debt.  Is it any wonder he is so familiar with those words.  These guys lie so much they do not recognize the truth or facts any more.  Then on Tuesday, March 24, Jindal said at a republican fund raising in D.C. concerning President Obama, "republicans are now part of the proud tradition of the loyal opposition."  (That describes them to a tee.)  He and his republican cohorts will be opposed to Obama's programs even when they fail to learn what the programs are all about.

 

The governor is spending so much time outside Louisiana raising money for his campaign, it indicates his mind is on a national run for office.  It is also noticeable Jindal is getting closer and closer to Newt Gingrich and the republican right wing, the republican party base.  Jindal may be a new republican face to many, but represents the same old republican conservative ideology that brought economic disaster to our country and its people.  One would think he would have known how much was actually involved in the stimulus package for those volcanoes.

Deregulation: A Misconception

There has been a lot of talk about deregulation being the cause of wall street and the financial markets failure and even of the economy in general.  For sure, deregulation has played a part in past failures such as the meltdown of the S&L industry in the 80's which was covered in a past politidose article.  That failure cost the tax payers over $150 Billion which was never paid back. 

 

The present problem with the present meltdown in the economy and wall street is a result of the failure of the regulators to regulate, because that was Bush's policies.  The government does not have to change the laws to deregulate, all it has to do is let industry have a free hand.  The results are the same.  That was Bush's ideology and a long standing ideology of conservatives in general, even though it has proved to be a failure because industry will not regulate itself.

 

Our founding fathers knew how important it was for government to have checks and balances and accountability.  If they were alive today they would be astonished to see the principals they worked for and established be trampled on. 

Why Are Gasoline Prices Still So High?

For the past year the American people have reduced their use of gasoline in a number of ways in answering the cost increase of gasoline that hit $4.00 gallon.  There is a surplus amount of gasoline on the market and the combination of both have brought the price of a barrel of oil and a gallon of gasoline down to its present level.

 

The national rig count of rigs working in the U.S. has dropped and so has the Louisiana rig count in response to the reduction in use of those fuels, plus the fact that inventories are outpacing demand.  So why is the price of oil still in the $50/barrel range and gasoline still in the $1.90/gallon range?  The answer is manipulation by the oil industry.  That same manipulation occurred to create $147/barrel oil and $4.00/gallon gasoline.  There was not any shortage of oil or gasoline at any time during the run up to record price levels.  The industry created a smoke screen using the Iraq war and talk of inventory shortages to manipulate the prices.

 

The oil and gas industry is now saying they can not make money at the present level of oil prices.  They say they borrowed money to do more drilling and expansion when prices were in the stratosphere and now can't afford to carry on with those plans at current prices.  It is just another smoke screen excuse to keep prices high while demand is falling.  They are betting the economy will improve and the people will go back to their old driving habits that will give the oil companies a higher base to start increasing their prices again.

 

The other factor is the Bush's administration meeting with the energy industry representatives chaired by V.P. Chaney.  Those meetings were held in secret and the decisions that were made at the meetings are still secret and with held from the public.  There has been no disruption in the availability of oil or gasoline in the past 8 years that compares to the disruption caused by the Arab oil embargo of the 70's, yet the manipulation of prices during the past 8 years have been more severe and longer lasting on the American people.  Hopefully, the people will continue to use less and less oil and gasoline in favor of other alternatives.