You remember all that scary talk so long ago about $4.00 gas?

[Stinky The Clown]

Well ... not so long ago ... maybe a week ago. Today, just now on MSNBC, some talking head predicted not $4.00 gas, but ..... FIVE DOLLAR gas.

I did a double take. FIVE dollars? A hundred bux a tank?

And we can't make this a campaign issue?

[snappyturtle]

1. Insanity....plain and simple. nt

[Lib Grrrrl]

2. And Where's All The Repukes

who were bashing Clinton-Gore over $30 a barrel oil, and $1.30 a gallon gas - or did we all forget that already?

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. What do they care about the working stiffs?

0, that's what.

[Lib Grrrrl]

5. Of Course They Don't - They're REPUKES!!

Repukes don't care about workin' folks. Never have...never will.

[Lorien]

7. I talked to a friend who said his repuke coworkers blames gas prices on

CLINTON. Yep, they're already buying GOP spin that the high gas prices are environmentalists fault. Never mind that SUV and Hummer drivers drove up demand and drove down the supply, never mind that we have an entire administration of oil business executives. Nope, it's all because of ANWR. :eyes:

Meanwhile, it's the repugs who are grabbing onto this issue, not the Dems. Will our party wake the hell up before November??

(snip)

(CNN) -- Amid rising gas and oil prices, a leading Republican said on Sunday that the U.S. government should consider imposing a windfall tax on oil company profits. "I think it's something worth considering among a number of options," Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told CNN's "Late Edition." He also criticized consolidation in the oil industry. "I believe that we have allowed too many companies to get together to reduce competition," he said, citing the combinations that created ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

[benburch]

4. $5 by midsummer is what the futures traders believe.

And they are most often right.

[spag68]

8. futures traders

are like snake oil salesmen. It's the old self fulfilling prophecy and these traders are part of the reason prices are so high.

[benburch]

10. Not really.

They just buy a position. If oil does not match their position closely, they lost a LOT of money, so they research carefully!

Please educate yourself as to how these markets work?

[DrGonzoLives]

14. Oh, bull

These people aren't even buying and selling products, they're gambling, and we pay the price.

If they want prices to go high, they will.

[MsUnderstood]

6. It was a campaign issue once. . .

Anyone remember Ross Perot. . .ran in 1992 and he had some crazy ideas, one of which was to tax the heck out of gasoline to drive it up to $5 a gallon in 10 years or so. . .I think the basic idea was to start with a 50 cent tax to pay off the deficit.

Anyway, When the gas creeps up I remember his political rantings. . .the perverse sense of humor I hide away.

[mike_c]

9. I'd rather have done that and paid off the deficit...

...than paid the same number of billions into oil company coffers. This is truely obscene-- not because of the price per se, but because of the unbelievable profits. This is a robber baron raid, plain and simple.

[MadHound]

11. Not suprising to me at all

I've been predicting, and preparing, for $5.00/gal gas since last year. One reason I purchased a nice little Bajaj scooter for my daily commute, 52 miles round trip. It gets 100mpg, cruises at 55-60mph, and I can pop a wheelie with it!

Seriously folks, you're either going to have to adapt or go under. Bike, scooter, public transport, carpool, these are all viable options.

Now if I can just find someway to do without having to mow the grass.

[NickB79]

12. Buy a goat?

As an added benefit, you have all the goat milk you can drink :-)

[MadHound]

13. Actually I've seriously considered that,

But goats will eat anything, including the paint off the car, my new apple trees, etc. However I am looking into sheep. Nice even cropline, and they also produce wool.

[Sinti]

15. They could easily drive it up to $5, then drop it back to $4.50

after * makes some kind of loud farting noise. Then everyone will be happy, and the good consumers will thank the heavens for their all powerful president, and his jawboning efforts with the oil companies. This is a great strategy, and a win-win for both the oil men and the BFEE (if you can see the subtle differences betwixt the two).

[LynneSin]

16. Consider the impact of $5/gal gas.....

To mean, that means I'll be paying $50/week for gas since I use about a tankful a week.

I know the mid-atlantic region has major econmoic boost in the summertime when the entire region roadtrips down to their favorite shore spot (Mine is Ocean City Maryland). And yet this year when asked if I wanted to go into a summer shore rental, I opted not too - bad enough to pay the rental fee but then to toss in the fact that it's about a tank of gas just to get me down to the sure.

$50 week means I'll be buying less consumer goods, I'll be going out less to the movies (but probably spend more in renting) hell, I even visit my mother less (another tank of gas just to visit her).

Ironcially, internet sales will probably increase; however, it seems congress wants to go after taxing online sales. Oh well, so much for the little people cutting a break.

[maxsolomon]

17. and barely any goes to pay for public transportation

in europe that's what they get for their obscenely expensive gas.

$3 is still cheap compared to what they pay. suck it up SUV owners (i'm one). moving my Exploder down the road costs 20 cents per mile at $3/gallon.

[mtnester]

18. Yeah, I did a poll on it last summer and got hammered by many

poo poo'd as being ridiculous to even suggest, that it would NEVER get above that for many years.

Shoot, I think some folks are paying that now in parts of this country for low grade.

I think it will flirt with $5.00 a gallon, either side of it, before summer's end. And I agree, if we cannot make this a campaign issue (why WON'T George call the oil companies into his office and rip their asses for gouging consumers when they show record profits? Could it be they are being given a PASS dammit!) then we ARE doomed to fail

(I KNOW, if we do not get electronic voting verified...I hear those who are coming with that next)

I hear this terrible news about gasoline, then watch a report about how Japan is being so innovative (i.e with their hybrid cars, from concept to production in RECORD time) and the announcement about the future of hybrid cars), then watch a Hummer commercial come on after that, and just shake my head.