The White House and the Gas Crisis

At any point during the last six years, the Bush administration could have headed off the current gas crisis and it chose not to. Remember the Prince Bandar/George W. Bush handholding when Bandar said he would hold the oil price down to $40/barrel? That, of course, was grandstanding and political nonsense on both sides. Neither Bandar nor GWB had any desire to hold the price of oil down. It is currently hovering around $70-75/barrel. When the price of crude hits $75/barrel, the price at the gas station hits $2.90/gallon. And that makes oil producing countries happy, the oil industry happy, sellers of fuel to the military happy, the Bush administration happy and the Bush family happy. Lest we forget, the Saudis and the Bushes have been in the oil business since the Saudis and Bushes crawled out of their caves. Letting the oil industry make huge profits is in the Bush family’s best interest. And George W. Bush is not above screwing the entire world to put a dollar in his pocket, and incidentally proving to his family that he’s not the inept oilman they always thought he was. Being one-up on that score is very important to the Little Decider. But one sentence in the NYT’s gas crisis report this morning shows what has been equally important to the GOP: “The Republican proposal also called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil production, a provision sure to draw opposition from many Democrats and even some Republicans.” It may be hard for us little folks to understand, but our government makes decisions based on granting personal gain to the men in power, and exacting revenge against the opposition that hasn’t gone along with enriching the men in power. Now you tell me, how is the Bush administration’s modus operandi regarding making rich Republicans richer any different from what dictators and kings do to put gold in their personal coffers? Our government doesn’t kill people to enrich the men in power, you say? Our government has killed 2,396 American soldiers in Iraq. Our government has maimed 17,469 American soldiers in Iraq. Our government has killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and maimed and tortured thousands more in Iraq. And that war is over oil.