Noel, when the family was all sitting around (like beached whales) after dinner last night, some were bemoaning the economy. I pointed out that, imagine how worse it would be if we were still shelling out $3.95 a gallon for gas rather than the $1.45 the stations had posted yesterday. It's a comfort that's not so cold. 

uh.... Earth calling America..... Doesn't anyone realize that the economic mess we are in now is a direct result of the oil price ripoff of the past months? Millions of families have bought homes in the suburbs in the past decade and commute many many miles to work in the urban areas daily. They were able to manage mortgage payments ok until they were suddenly having to spend $1,000 to $1,500 or more in fuel bills. The US auto makers were able to survive with sales of light trucks and SUV's until the oil prices have effectively driven them out of business. 

My only hope is that the oil speculators got stuck with tons of $147 futures and the oil producing nations implode with the collapse of oil prices.

$1 billion less on gas also means perhaps 2-4 times that as much lost in tax revenue.

So now watch the liberals - who wanted us to drive less, and use less gas - freak out because they're not getting their taxes!

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

And that gives lie to the liberal insistence of raising gas taxes to get the price back up to $4/gallon.  This short period of 6 months in dropping prices has demonstrated the folly of high gasoline prices like those in Europe.  The run up (from 2005 to mid year) to $4/gal sunk the economy and the recent pull back prevented things from getting much worse than it could have been.  Of course, we know the idiots (being kind otherwise they are crooks) in Congress are chomping at the bit to raise taxes to fund all their contributor kick back schemes, I mean green energy policy.

The public debate should be about ensuring sufficient domestic production to keep the price of oil below $60/barrel not how to raise the price of gasoline to $9/gallon as it is in Europe.  It's time for Congress to accept the truth as it is, the price of energy determines the well-being of the economy not government meddling via the domestic drilling ban.

But the whole thing is a distraction from the real issue, that being the cost of living especially for the poor who are disproportionately affected by incompetent government policy when it comes to energy.  The truth be told and that won't be coming from the lib Dems, keeping energy costs down does more good for the poor than any government program. Why is it the government insists on taxing excessively the very thing that the poor most depend upon?  Why? Just to give it back using the EIC?  We all know the answer, for them to get the credit for giving them something and their vote.  You know there is a phrase that describes giving something back which wasn't yours in the first place and making yourself out to be magnaminous - THAT WAS REAL WHITE OF YOU.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/melpol

Sales taxes feed a hungry state at the expense of low wage workers who are barely surviving. The state should cut salaries of overpaid employees and lay off those that are not needed. But it is easier to bully the poor and weak by using the sales tax. According to a leading Sex prevention Service U.S. singular condom sales are running at one trillion rubbers annually. This data suggest that Americans are using more condoms in response to higher child raising costs and AIDS education. That news will be a golden opportunity for states that are searching to find the right sin tax to erase high budget deficits. 5 bucks a condom would be a fair sin tax. If combined with a higher tax for those that use motel rooms for illicit sex it would be the largest state tax increase since the civil war. Not only would it solve the state budget deficits but it would also make religious leaders happy---family values would once again become holy and pre-marital sex curtailed.

States must have money to pay their operating costs. Most of those expenses are paid by workers who send in a part of their wages to the state annually.  But there are  many low income wage earners that cannot afford state payroll taxes and they are given an exemption.

It is outrageous to have a minimum wage worker being forced to pay a sales tax on soap and toilet paper. Having to go to work smelly and dirty unless that tax is paid sounds like extortion. This law must be abolished at once. The state claims that they cannot provide proper services without taxes on detergents and paper goods. They say that billions of dollars in sales taxes are collected on toilet paper alone. This issue should be taken up by the new administration in Washington. A large part of the trillion dollar stimulus package should be given to the states that lift this filthy sales tax---it smells.