Rove strategy on gas prices: do nothing.
By on May 2nd, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Rove strategy on gas prices: do nothing.
“[T]he President’s ace strategist was brought up sharply at a recent White House meeting with a group of Republican congressional-staff chiefs when he suggested that the best approach to soaring gasoline prices was this: wait. There’s no immediate fix available, so let the market work its magic, Rove said.” Sounds like the perfect approach for this Congress.
View Most Popular
Advertisement
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Afghanistan
Bachmann
Beck
Boehner
Business
Cheney
Civil Rights
Congress
Corporate Ethics
Dobbs
Economy
Education
Election
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
Gingrich
Glenn Beck
Global Warming
Health Care
Immigration
International Relations
Justice
LGBT
Lieberman
Limbaugh
Media
Military
O'Reilly
Obama
Palin
Pelosi
Politics
Race
Radical Right
Religion
Sports
Steele
Stimulus
Tea Parties
Tea Party
Terrorism
Veterans
Women's Rights
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Reports
In-depth studies on select topics
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
ArchivesBlog Roll
Karl where is Jeff?
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:28 pmMaybe Uncle Karl figures he’ll soon be spending a great deal of time on introspection in a very private, regimented environment where cars are the last thing he’ll need.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:30 pmIs there something wrong with Karl’s decision, since when has it been the Presidents job to make sure we get oil on the cheap? (And the one time he tried, you guys all got mad at him, no war for oil?)
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:30 pmLet the market work it’s magic?
The same market where supply is heavily and artificially controlled by the oil companies? The same market that they keep closing refineries to cause a bottleneck in supply that drives up prices?
The same market that reacts more to Bush’s endless wars in the middle east, driving up the cost per barrel?
The same market that has tripled since Bush came into office and shows absolutely no sign of slowing down as the Republicans do absolutely nothing…going so far as to not even question the companies under oath?
The same market that offers ZERO solutions to our oil addiction because car companies and gas companies are colluding to push more SUVs, lower fuel efficiency standards, fight envirnmental concers and lobby against alternative fuel sources? ALso because Bush and Republicans giev more and mroe handouts to oil companies but less and less funding for science and research into alternative fuels?
Sure Rove…the magic of the market is SURE to go down. Just as long as nobody looks behind the curtain to see who the real wizard is.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:30 pmWe should pass a windfall profits tax on the Big Oil companies and use the money to build at least 10 brand new state-of-art refineries.
This is not an immediate fix but there is no immediate fix available.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:31 pm#3 War for oil, Bush can’t even get that right. He is a complete failure.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:33 pmIs anyone talking about long-term solutions? Alternative energy?
It difficult to say, but oil prices aren’t high enough. Oil companies and their gobs of money are holding us back. They aren’t investing in tomorrow or improving infrastructures, and our government is not providing the right leadership and incentives in todays world.
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy.
Has what our political system morphed into, capable of solving tough, real problems?
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:33 pm#4 “The same market where supply is heavily and artificially controlled by the oil companies?”
I think you might mean OPEC.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:34 pmMight be a good strategy for Karl…he may not need to worry about gas prices if he becomes mobility challenged as a result of his ongoing legal problems.
http://www.thoughttheater.com
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:37 pmKarl is a “man” who doesn’t have to worry about paying for his gas, it’s not going to faze him one bit to do nothing. I think he’s given up his pretense that he cares about any of us.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:42 pmKarl already knows that Big Oil is going to lower its prices right after Labor Day and just in time for the leadup to the midterms. He’s already put the phone call in to them. Then he’ll orchestrate a series of photo-ops of Bush standing in front of gas pumps, where Dim Son take credit for bringing down the price.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:46 pm“. . . the perfect approach for this Congress.” This is wholly unfair. Congress has already changed the french fries to “freedom fries” in the Congressional cafeteria AND they are working on a requirement that the National Anthem be sung only in English. C’mon, these are some of the most powerful people in the world, and look what they’ve already accomplished!
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:47 pmCanada, Venezuela, and Mexico each shipped almost as much oil to the U.S. as Saudi Arabia. In addition to the OPEC countries of Nigeria and Iraq, Colombia, Norway, and the United Kingdom were all major suppliers of crude oil to the U.S. Non-OPEC sources supplied about 25 percent and OPEC sources about 26 percent of total U.S. oil consumption.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:50 pmPersian Gulf countries were the source of about 13 percent of total U.S. oil consumption In 2000, about 70 percent of all
petroleum used in the United States was consumed in the transportation sector
~~~
Yeh ‘Do nothing’, that Karl is Smart, a real Genius, maybe this is really his Lawyers plan for his trial?
Remember Karl Nothing!
Do Nothing
Say Nothing
Be Nothing
See Nothing
Rove will soon be watchingthat magic from a courtroom. Fitz is preparing the indictment this week. Check truthout.org.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:50 pmIn this case, I don’t think that the market will work to the benefit of the consumer. Oil companies, and oil cartels like OPEC, are making more money then they ever thought possible. They have zero incentive to change. Consider that car manufacturers would not have put seatbelts into cars, or made vehicles with cleaner emissions, and higher mileage if the government had not passed laws, that required these items. I don’t see the oil companies, who are looking at the profits they are making substantial by any claim, suddenly deciding they will do what is best for the American people. It has been pointed out that a company is out for itself, and the bottom line, nothing else. This sort of greed, is why we have environmental standards, and protected areas. No I don’t think the market magic will work without a strong and concerted push from our government to go in that direction.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:54 pm#14 – Thanks for the heads-up, Hardy.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:07 pmCool website, by the way. Love the pictures of Rove!
Personally, I’m hoping for Fitzo de Mayo.
#8. No I mean the oil companies. If you would have read the entire paragraph you would have seen the point about oil companies constantly closing down refineries since the mid-90s in order to bottleneck the amount of gasoline that is getting to the public and therefore justifying the price increases.
This has more immediate effect on gas prices in the US than anything OPEC has done lately.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:15 pmI hate Bush and Rove, but I honestly think giving up Plame was an accident. And one they regret.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:15 pm#18 – Is that why they keep lying about it under oath, and smearing Plame and her husband with claims (she sent him on the trip, she wasn’t a covert agent) to this day?
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:18 pm#3. BushCo’s “war for oil” was “war for control of oil” to enrich his pals and furhter world domination. He is not interested in cheap oil. If he was interested in bringing down the price of oil he would have spent the 300 billion he has wasted on Iraq on alternative energy and fuel efficiency research. But the last thing BushCo wants is cheap oil.
I wonder where that hydrogen car, that Bush promised us in his one State of the Union speech, is? How much money has he put in to that program?
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:20 pmhttp://www.freakradio.org/listen.html
Neil Young’s ‘Living with War’ is playing now.
Kind of ‘on’ topic.
Gas is only three bucks a gallon or less. It’s like the weather, you can complain about it, but there is nothing you can do to change it. Don’t buy as much anymore, it’ll all work out.
A gallon Benjamin Moore paint is $35.99 a gallon. Still gotta paint the walls now and then.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:30 pm“There’s no immediate fix available, so let the market work its magic, Rove said.”
Big oil controls supply, takes government money and in no small measure IS government. What the hell does a free market have to do with anything?
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:32 pmPersonally I agree with Rove and hope that the President will follow his advice. Hopefully the result will be that prices will go up, thus encouraging two things: greater conservation measures by automobile users and voting against oil-friendly Republicans this November.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:32 pmFirst time and probably only time I will ever say something nice about Karl Rove.
Yeah, a gallon of Benjamin paint is 35 dollars. But then again I don’t have to put a coat of paint on my house every other day.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:37 pmUgly people shouldn’t be morality advisers.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:44 pmYeah Hunter – I love the comparison the right wing makes to starbucks also. I do not need to buy a latte to get to work or heat my home, etc.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:45 pm#25 – that is one way to assure republicans never assume office again. There is not a good looking one among the bunch of them!
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:50 pmI also don’t buy a gallon sized latte everyday.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:03 pm#18 – What’s your thinking on that? I think Rove is far too calculating to make a mistake like that, but I’m interested in what you have to say.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:07 pmHey, it is you who can switch to another form of energy. You don’t need to use gasoline. You can have vegetable oil for a fuel. You can grow it. Have a vehicle that uses peanut oil, the original Diesel fuel, and you’re off of the hook. You are no longer dependent upon the oil companies. Fact is: It is more convienent to use gasoline, but not better.
If you can grow your own fuel, have a generator, you can be off the grid.
If you have a vehicle that gets 29 miles per gallon, it is costing you ten cents to travel one mile. It’s a bargain. A horse would eat you into the poorhouse too.
Don’t drive if you think the price of gas is too high. It is more than I want to pay, but then it is at a price where I don’t object. It’s the old catch 22.
I complained when gas went from 25 cents per gallon to 59 cents and then to 79 cents in the early to mid seventies. In fact, I remember when gas was 19.9 cents per gallon. A new Volkswagen was 1199 dollars. I worked for $1.00 per hour in 1972 plus gratuities.
The price of gold was standardized at 35.07 per ounce. Forty hours of work meant the value of the forty dollars was about 1 and 1/7 ounces of gold. Which meant it was worth close to eight hundred dollars in today’s dollars.
It ain’t good, I know. All sorts of money, but harder to save. Spend it till its all gone and you’re still in the hole. Stop spending.
It’s the Republican economy, the worst one ever. The illegal immigrants still can afford to take a day to protest their fight to be legal citizens, take a day off of work to do it. That’s ok to do that. However, if you would organize hundreds of thousands of war protesters to protest the war in Iraq, there would be bucco police making it miserable for hard working Americans to protest the actions of their own government.
The neocons and Republicans have everything under control. Mission is accomplished, and the American people have been hosed. big deal.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:15 pmHey Karl, how about gas rationing? All of us citizens would get a ration card and would be forced to conserve gas. There’s a WAR on you know!
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:36 pmNow get in line and support your country in a time of need.
Head-in-the-sand doctrine.
May 2nd, 2006 at 6:05 pmRove might be Bush’s brain but even he knows not to piss off those who really have money and will use it to get what they want…in the world of politics Rove is as replaceable as Lee Atwater was….thus he does not tread into places he knows he does not belong…
May 3rd, 2006 at 12:38 amIn response to #5. WPTs have been tried before and they don’t accomplish anything except more money in the governments hands. And using the tax to create more refineries isn’t necessary. Our domestic oil companies are already investing billions to develop new and more efficient ways to refine.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:32 pmJanie, I would ammend your statement to say: “WPTs have been tried before and they take money out of the pockets off hard working Americans to put more money in government’s hands.” While I totally understand the inclination to punish the oil cos, a tax that would be passed on to the consumer and actually drive pump price up is not the way to go!
May 4th, 2006 at 6:03 amI have to agree that the WPT isn’t the best answer… I’m not too excited about all the profits the oil companies are making, but I have to go with Rove on this one issue. It looks to me like the only way to solve the problem of high gas prices is to change demand–maybe we should think conservation instead.
May 4th, 2006 at 8:24 pm