Sen. Charles Schumer asked for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to release 30 million to 40 million barrels of oil to help Americans pay for the skyrocketing costs of heating oil and gas. He said, “I think it’s clear to anyone who drives or owns a home that prices are going through the roof. And Americans are being sopped with a triple whammy this winter: a soft economy, rising unemployment and now higher gasoline prices.”
My senator is absolutely correct and I agreed with him, in this very column, when he said it — in 2002. That’s when gas soared to a record breaking $1.45 a gallon. It’s more than double that now and with a Democrat in the White House, Sen. Schumer is conspicuously quiet. C’mon, Chuck. Be consistent. If you were correct then, you’d be doubly correct now … or do you only speak out when the other party is in power? Does “double standard” have meaning here?
On the subject of consistency, here’s something that Hillary said, or rather screamed: “I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.”
YES! YES! YES! I agreed with you when you screeched that way back in 2003 and I agree with you now, but I don’t hear you saying it today when so many of us debate with the current administration. In fact, when anyone from the right speaks out to disagree, the left goes further than merely calling us unpatriotic. They say that we are racists spewing hate speech, encouraging violence, stirring fear, endangering civility and causing screwballs to shoot elected officials. All those words just for saying that we oppose the increased government spending, the record-smashing federal budget deficit, the catastrophic levels of national debt and the untruthful man in the White House whose solution to any problem is to throw money at it. Only now the POTUS no longer uses the “S” word. In his speech he refers to his open-wallet syndrome as “investing.” C’mon Mrs. Clinton, be consistent. What’s good for the goose is ….Never mind. You’re a very good Democrat. It’s too bad that this is not the same Democratic party that you and I grew up with. Do you remember what Margaret Thatcher said? “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
My president, in his State of the Union speech, did not make many friends when he spoke about “investing.” Only 34 percent of likely voters favor more spending in the areas he targeted while 49 percent say that cutting federal spending is better for the economy. Sixty-eight percent prefer a government with fewer services and lower taxes rather than a more active government with higher involvement and more taxes. Many of us were more than irritated when he commented on subjects like transportation, immigration and education. He made a ridiculous comment about a sputnik moment.
I am StanGershbein@Bellsouth.net thinking that much of his speech was more like a Joe Wilson moment.
