Bush: "Rising gasoline prices is like taking a — is like a tax"

[dajoki]

AP
http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap04-21-165309.asp?t=APNEW

Bush takes note of high gas prices but offers little in the way of relief

By JENNIFER LOVEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS


SAN JOSE, Calif., April 21 — As oil prices hit a record, drivers worried about $3-a-gallon gas and politicians feared the impact on elections, President Bush on Friday acknowledged the pain but seemed resigned to being able to do little about it.

''I know the folks here are suffering at the gas pump,'' the president said while promoting his competitiveness initiative at the Silicon Valley headquarters of Internet networking company Cisco Systems Inc. ''Rising gasoline prices is like taking a — is like a tax, particularly on the working people and the small-business people.''

But to address the immediate problem, Bush offered only a pledge that ''if we find any price gouging it will be dealt with firmly.''

<<snip>>

Critics say Bush's ideas are too modest and focus on solutions that are far from being a reality in the marketplace.

<<snip>>

Democratic efforts to score political points by focusing on gas prices have Republicans worried that their majority in Congress could be at risk in the fall midterm elections.

[marmar]

1. ...price gouging it will be dealt with firmly."

You could fertilize Iowa with that heap.

[Kagemusha]

7. Indeed

Price gouging cannot exist in a free market. The market is free. Ergo, there is no gouging. <- What they'll say.

[annabanana]

2. Rising gasoline prices is like taking ahhh...( taking

candy from a baby".. uh, no better not say that ). . "is like a tax"

(yeah, that's the ticket)

[Patchuli]

3. He's 'tween a rock and a hard place now!

Gee, party or wallet? Friends or party? hmmmmmmm...I hope they squeeze 'em good.

[Rick Myers]

4. The Cisco Kid rides again!!!

:grr:asshat:grr:

[etherealtruth]

5. When he choked on that pretzyl ...

...just how long was he oxygen deprived?

Seriously

[dajoki]

11. brain damaged...

long before that.

[etherealtruth]

18. I stand corrected

:toast:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. My gas break went in my tax tank..... or was it the other way

around....... sleeeeeeepy time.....

[C_U_L8R]

8. except it's a tax that...

goes straight into the coffers of Bush's oil cronies

(and does not contribute one penny to the public good)

it's a scam

[yurbud]

9. he accidentally told the truth except the tax is going to OIL COMPANIES

not the common good.

[dajoki]

12. Oil companies don't pay taxes...

but they recieve them.

[yurbud]

19. well said--the new feudalism

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

10. Who the hell is worried about $3 gas in SAN JOSE????

Chevron Supreme is going for $3.29 today. It's been climbing 4 to 6 cents a DAY here.

I'm worried about FOUR dollar gas.

[NinetySix]

13. Notice how he never talks about "jawboning OPEC" anymore.

I still can't believe people bought that shit during the 2000 debates. It stands to reason that oil men would share the industry's preference for high oil prices and their concommitant high profits.

Now oil is trading above $75 a barrel, and the Jawboner-in-Chief is strangely reticent in the face of crony profiteering. The US economy is on a bobsled to hell, and these people are doing everything they can to squeeze all they can get before the bottom falls out. Historians will record the decision of the 2000 election as an existential moment in the history of the Republic.

[dajoki]

14. oh, yeah, I remember...

the jawboning comment. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? oil is thicker than blood!!

[Doctor_J]

15. Once again, Too Stupid To Be President is out campaigning

while the world burns. HEY STUPID! WHY DON'T YOU DO SOMETHING TO END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ AND REPLENISH OUR TREASURY THAT YOUR FRIENDS LOOTED! SHOW SOME LEADERSHIP FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, INSTEAD OF RECITING PLATITUDES.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. What does he mean by that?

That the haves and have-mores shouldn't have to pay for their gasoline? That what he believes about taxes.

[dajoki]

21. Yep, that sounds about right n/t

[greenbriar]

17. is like taking a shit on the constitution??? bushy almost forgot who he

was talking to

[DuaneBidoux]

20. BULLSHIT: Taxes come back for the good of the community.

[dajoki]

22. Not with this administration n/t