Bush finds out about $4 gas forecasts

[flashl]

Source: CNN-Money

President says best way to help consumers cope is to make his tax cuts permanent.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Bush, saying he was unaware of predictions of $4-a-gallon gasoline in the coming months, told reporters Thursday that the best way to help Americans fend off high prices is for Congress to make his first-term tax cuts permanent.

"If you're out there wondering... what your life is going to be like, and you're looking at $4 a gallon, that's uncertain," Bush responded to a question posed at a White House news conference. "And when you couple that with the idea that... taxes may be going up in a couple years, that's double uncertainty."

Analysts have said that gasoline could reach $4 a gallon by this spring, due to strong demand and a change in formulation, among other reasons.

When taking the question about the $4 milestone, Bush told the reporter, "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."

CNN Business

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/28/news/economy/bush_energy_policy/index.htm?postversion=2008022813

---

Now that he knows ... We have double uncertainty?

[MaineDem]

1. Kinda like "what's the price of milk?" to his Poppy

How the hell did his economists not tell him this! He's a piece of work.

[HereSince1628]

2. Nobody but Cheney tells him anything if we are to believe the

accounts coming out of the WH. Cheney's only concern is that the military have its fuel needs met, cost isn't a consideration.

[CJCRANE]

7. I can believe it.

I don't think Shrub does any preparation for press conferences at all. He just seems to wing it.

And then probably goes back to riding his bike or having a nap.

[NinetySix]

27. (In)Curious George Rides a Bike

[Maine-ah]

29. Curious George has more intelligence in the end of his monkey

tail, than W does in his whole frickin' body.

[NinetySix]

33. CORRECTION:

Curious George is in fact a chimpanzee, so he has no tail:



Therefore, he has more intelligence in his ASS than W does in his entire body.

As do I.

[Maine-ah]

57. roflmao!

and correct you are!

:rofl:

[maryallen]

64. George W. just "winging" it?

What was he said to some ivy league school crowd?
(paraphrasing)
"To all of you C students out there: You, too, can become President of the US one day."

[Maine-ah]

28. hey MD, the little bastard knew

he's just claiming otherwise....

and as if those tax breaks are going to help the people that truely need the help.


fucker. I can't wait till he's gone.

[polmaven]

3. "And when you couple that with the idea that...

taxes may be going up in a couple years, that's double uncertainty."

Well, sure...because if you are in that upper income bracket that may see a rise in taxes, you hafta be uncertain EVERY DAY about how yhou will buy your next Limo, never mind how you will EVER afford the gas for it. You may have to cut back on your driver's salary, so, there it is! The job killer tax increase!

[zbdent]

11. well, you have to consider the "bottom" tax bracket which will expire at the same time

(which the Repubs will use to generate sympathy for the tax cuts)

But when you consider that Rush Limbaugh and company were the ones (prior to the "lowest tax bracket" creation) who said that nobody was working for that little of money, then you have to ask, who would the loss of that "lowest tax bracket" affect?

[lynnertic]

17. in Texas your driver has the right to work without a union

because unions, I'm told, are bloodsuckers. They take a fee out of your paycheck and that's just awful.

(nobody adds that the resulting union worker's paycheck is much larger than the union fee)

Go to Texas, the Right To Work(R) state!

[Jackpine Radical]

22. I'm getting pretty nervous myself.

Starting to think about having to sell one of the yachts.

Oh, well, the little 200-footer is starting to get a little scruffy anyhow.

[Rockholm]

4. Maybe Bush Should Read DU !

We have been talking about $4.00 gas for quite some time. In fact, I have been discussing this on another website with some real FReeptards and THEY have been talking and freaking out about it too.
Bush is such an asshole.
WHY THE MSM ISN'T REALLY TALKING ABOUT THIS IS MAKING ME NUTS.

[ClintonTyree]

34. Bush doesn't "read" anything....

which is the prime reason he's as ignorant, and useless, as pocket lint.

I imagine we'll have another Congressional investigation into gas prices that will find absolutely NO price gouging by BIG OIL, as usual. :eyes: They run the government. After all, Bush started a war just for them, didn't he?

[Rockholm]

47. How many more days of this insanity?

[NYC]

51. 325 days remaining.

325 days, 3 hours, 25 minutes.


http://www.backwardsbush.com/code.php

[FVZA_Colonel]

61. I am either going to spend that day in prayer in thanks that the Idiot Son is out of power, or just

get really drunk in celebration.

[NYC]

62. Champagne.

That's my plan. :party:

[beltanefauve]

63. I'll be throwing a

"Going-Away Party for George W Bush", only * won't actually be invited because I don't allow hard drugs in my home!

[tsuki]

5. How does making tax cuts drop the price of oil? How does it

make it better to give your money to corporations rather than pay that money for taxes? Who in Bubbleland is ready to give up their salaries and benes to assure tax cuts for the wealthy?

[guitar man]

24. It doesn't

The bu$h tax cuts for billionaires haven't dropped the price of oil so far, so I don't see how making them permanent would have any effect. If the bastards are going to profiteer anyway, we need to hit them up to pay off the war deficit that allowed them to reap such profits.

[riverwalker]

6. Obama called him on it yesterday

just hours after Bush said it, Obama hit him with it at a rally. It was pretty good "Bush out of touch etc"

[CRK7376]

8. That's interesting my ass....!

I wish that jackass had to suffer the way many of us do....I truly suspect that in the near future it'll cost me 80$ to fill up the tank of my Tacoma and another $80 for my wife's Sienna Van with the cheapest gas available in my area. Goodbye movies, trips to the video/game shop, vacation hahahahaha. Sure wish he would suffer some financial disaster in his own life and see what it feels like. All the while Exxon, Shell, Citgo and all the rest are raking in obscene record profits....

[DCKit]

46. It's YOUR fault for not investing your vast resources into Big Oil stocks!!! n/t

[Maestro]

9. He's so disconnected from reality it is ridiculous. It was the same

with Poppy Bush. When was the last time this jerk even bought a gallon of gas?

[gratuitous]

13. Hammer, meet nail

It's not like Bush pulls out his own wallet when one of his presidential rides pulls in to the pump. Remember how exercised Chimpy was when gas was approaching $1.50 a gallon back in 2000? Boy, action needed to be taken then boy! In 2008, the price might go up to $4 a gallon? Eh, not so much.

[bdamomma]

36. they have other people doing their deeds.

these people cannot relate to any of us, does anyone believe that they do.

[crim son]

10. Impeach him, prosecute him for war crimes,

strip him of his material assets and let him live like the rest of us. Reality bites.

[aasleka]

12. We need THIS NOW, Green Collar Jobs

Everyone has a sanitary sewer collection system in their large city, we could be producing our own fuel from them as well as reducing C02.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12834398/

http://asunews.asu.edu/20070821_algae

http://researchmag.asu.edu/2007/08/whatcha_gonna_do_with_that_gre.html

"Hu and Sommerfeld envision commercial operations with thousands of acres of Arizona land covered with bio-reactors producing enough fastgrowing algae to furnish 100 barrels of oil per acre daily."

http://pune360.com/News/2007/09/02/asu-professors-working-on-cost-effective-fuel-conversion-process/

[BrklynLiberal]

14. * is a total nitwit. I believe his "advisors" only tell him what he has to know to get thru each

day...and no more. They feed him just enough info so they think he will be able to avoid looking like the total moron he is. Ironically,it seems that he just cannot avoid appearing like one.

[ixion]

15. what an a**... "interesting?"

tell that to the people who have to work for a living, assclown. :grr:

I'm sure they find it painful, rather than interesting. :argh:

[cyclezealot]

16. My three dollar a week tax savings will go a long way.

[hadrons]

18. How many numbnut Repukes still think he cares about them???

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Disengaged nitwit. Petulant tyrant.

[GAtomboy]

20. He just talks without a clue

Why are we even having press conferences for this joke of a preisdent still? He stood there and SAID he had no idea analysts were predicting 4 dollar a gallon gas prices and then just a couple of questions later contradicted himself when talking about the funding for his stupid library (how can a guy who has a 4th grade reading level get a library named after him)

Q Thank you, sir. Now that you've found a location for your presidential library, you've got to find the money to build it. Reports indicate that you may be trying to collect as much as $200 million. Is that figure accurate? Do you believe it's important for the American people to know who is giving that kind of money to their President? Will you disclose the contributions as they come in? And will you place any restriction on who gives money and how much they can give?

THE PRESIDENT: No, yes, no, yes. (Laughter.) Next question. (Laughter.) I haven't -- phew, man. You obviously haven't asked a question in a long time. It was like, you know, -- one, I haven't seen the final budget. Two, as Donnie Evans said, who is the chairman of the foundation, we'll look at the disclosure requirements and make a decision. You know, here's -- there's a lot of people -- or some people; I shouldn't say "a lot" -- some people who like to give and don't particularly want their names disclosed, whether it be for this foundation or any other foundation. And so we'll take that into consideration.

Thirdly -- and what was the other?

Q Any restrictions on who can give? Will you take foreign money for this?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I'll probably take some foreign money, but don't know yet, Ken. We just haven't -- we just announced the deal and I, frankly, have been focused elsewhere, like on gasoline prices and, you know, my trip to Africa, and haven't seen the fundraising strategy yet. So the answer to your question, really, I can't answer your question well.

He was focused on gasoline prices.... uh huh. WORST (and dumbest) president EVER!!!

[momster]

25. "What Was the Middle Thing?"

Kevin Kline won an Oscar for pretending to be somebody this stupid in Fish Called Wanda. GWB got the Presidency and he's not pretending.

[NYC]

52. Good catch.

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[hvn_nbr_2]

21. Nobody could have foreseen it... nt

[Lochloosa]

23. I heard him say this yesterday.

He interupted the reporter asking him about the 4 bucks. Right in the middle of the question:
"What did you just say"

Really rude about it.

[bdamomma]

37. he was probably laughing to himself when he heard it was $4.

cause he is such a defiant prick.

[FredMertz]

26. What's worse than what he said.......

Is the way he said it. I heard the audio. That smarmy tone.....the ultimate insult to every hard-working person in this country. It's hard not to hate him.

[tridim]

30. Remember when gas was about $1.10 before Bush, Cheney and Bandar f*cked us all?

I wonder how many voters remember?

What's McPain plan to do about it?

[guitar man]

38. yes, I remember well

About 6 months prior to Katrina when gas hit $3, I took a promotion to am management job with what was, at the time, a good salary. Since then, not only gas, but increases in groceries, utilities and other necessities have turned my formerly decent salary into a near poverty-level existence. Tar and feathers, run out on a rail I say!!

[ellenfl]

39. "What's McPain plan to do about it?"

tax cuts, what else?

ellen fl

[Deny and Shred]

31. Good. Someone let him know the Berlin Wall came down, too.

[kestrel91316]

32. Did he then offer the helpful suggestion that people

buy diesel? I'd expect that.

"Let them eat cake! -- Marie Antoinette

There is only one appropriate form of justice for people like this:

[AllyCat]

35. And those tax cuts have sooooo helped us thus far, eh?

Make them permanent so his buddies can reap even higher profits at our expense. What a criminal this guy is.

[The Croquist]

40. Bush probably thinks that gas is free

It's what you get after eating chili.

[truthisfreedom]

41. Someone should point out to herr president that the gas prices are displayed on those tall signs on

streetcorners all across the US.

[Jeanette in FL]

42. Why doesn't he tell his OPEC buddies to "open up the spigots"

During the 2000 presidential race Bush had plenty to say about the price of gas and how he would handle it:

OPEC will increase oil supply out of respect for Bush

Bush said today that he would bring down gasoline prices by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude. “I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply. Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot.”

Implicit in his comments was a criticism of the Clinton administration as failing to take advantage of the good will that the US built with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Also implicit was that as the son of the president who built the coalition that drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait, Mr. Bush would be able to establish ties on a personal level that would persuade oil-producing nations that they owed the US something in return.

------------------------

Bush Criticized Clinton Administration For High Gas Prices


Bush In 2000: Bush Blamed Clinton Administration For High Gas Prices; Promised "Immediate Relief" By Using His "Capital" With Saudis And Kuwaitis. "Campaigning for president in a state particularly hard-hit by high gasoline prices, Texas Gov. George W. Bush on Tuesday blamed the nation's predicament on the Clinton administration, which he said is operating without an energy policy. "This is an administration that is hoping the issue goes away,' Bush said. ... 'The vice president seems to forget who's been in office for seven years,' Bush said. 'This is an administration that has been in charge, and the price of gasoline has risen steadily since they've been in office.' Asked what he would do as president to address the price at the pump, Bush said he would confer with oil-producing allies and ask them to pump more crude. 'I would use the capital my administration will earn with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, to convince them to open up the spigot,' Bush said. 'That's where we will get immediate relief.'"
http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/04/bushs_ever-chan.php

--------------------------------------


I think the president ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say: ‘We expect you to open your spigots’ …The president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price. And if, in fact, there is collusion amongst big oil, he ought to intercede there as well..
http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/1648.html

[panzerfaust]

43. forecast NOT

there are several reports of U$ gas currently being over $4/gal

[LynnTheDem]

44. George "there is no poverty in Texas" bUsh is all-knowing.

About absolutely nothing whatsofuckingever.

[trusty elf]

45. "If you're out there wondering what your life is going to be like...

His language is very telling, isn't it?!

Obviously he doesn't have a clue and doesn't give a damn. It must be tough for him to have to feign interest in the lives of his shrubjects.

[wiggs]

48. The drumbeat to drill everywhere, and ANWR first, is already starting. nt

[Lorien]

50. ANWR is just another bid for Halliburtan to further raid the Treasury

at best it contains three months worth of oil....for the state of California. It'll take ten years and billions of dollars to build the infrastructure, and guess who would get THAT sweet no bid contract?

[wiggs]

54. No argument from me. The oil from ANWR is enough for 1-2% of our consumption

for 20 years (IIRC). That's one person out of a hundred deciding to take the bus....that's all of us driving 99 miles instead of 100...that's 25.3 mpg instead of 25 mpg for all cars....that's riding a bike to the market once in a while instead of driving...

...fuel efficiency should be the first option, but that doesn't tap into billions of dollars. Tells you how concerned we really are for resource security and oil imports. Not.

But I heard some RWr pundit on the radio last night asking the question..."how high does gas have toget before we drill in ANWR, off California, and off Florida?"

[Lorien]

60. I hear the same crap from RWers all the time

they believe that the government is secretly hiding the true amount of oil in ANWR, which they believe is enough to take us off foreign oil completely and sustain the US for a century or more. I don't know where they are getting such BS. Even the MSM consistently overstates the reserves in ANWR:
An October 20 New York Times article by reporter Felicity Barringer on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee's decision to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) cited the Department of Energy to make the deceptive claim that the refuge "sit atop reserves of 10 billion barrels of oil." But as Media Matters for America has noted, the 10-billion-barrel figure is misleading, encompassing both a larger area for drilling than what the Senate committee voted to authorize and including oil that may not be economically worthwhile to recover. Moreover, the article's description of this figure as "reserves" attached a certainty to that figure upon which previous Times reporting cast doubt.

The 10-billion-barrel figure the Times article cited comes from a 1998 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of the possible oil in the ANWR area. The USGS reported that 10.4 billion barrels was the average likely amount of "technically recoverable" oil for the entire surveyed region. The Senate committee, however, voted to authorize oil development and production only in the "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 1002 Coastal Plain Area," an area that is smaller than what the USGS surveyed in making its assessment. The USGS found this smaller region's average likely amount of "technically recoverable" oil to be 7.7 billion barrels -- not 10 billion.

The amount of oil that could be obtained by opening ANWR is further diminished by cost. As of this writing, oil prices sit at roughly $60 a barrel, or $47.85 in 1996 dollars (which the USGS report uses). The USGS assessed how much of the oil that is technically recoverable would be economically feasible to obtain; and, while the USGS report did not assess how much oil could be profitably recovered above a $40 price per barrel (1996 dollars), if the trend shown until that point were to continue to the current $47.85, an average of approximately 7 billion barrels of oil would be economically recoverable.



In addition, the article's claim that ANWR "sit atop reserves of 10 billion barrels" suggests a certainty that is not warranted. As a February 21 New York Times article noted, the 1998 USGS "estimates are of 'petroleum resources' -- potential oil deposits -- instead of 'petroleum reserves,' which refers to oil that has been discovered." The current article's use of the latter term obscures the fact that the actual amount of oil in ANWR is uncertain; the USGS estimates at the 95 percent confidence level only 3.4 billion barrels as technically recoverable.

From the October 20 New York Times article "Senate Panel Approves Arctic Drilling":




On edit: I don't know why the links I post keep coming up with that line through most of them!

[DemoTex]

49. $4 gas forecast? How 'bout a California NowCast!

[margotb822]

66. What part of CA?

I'm in SD and it's $3.59-ish. Un-f*ing-believable!

[pinniped]

53. Of course, asshole's BS tax cuts really don't address the problem of super-high gas prices.

This is the same as giving these greedy oil companies any extra money we may have.

Monkeyboy might as well tell us to put that BS tax rebate right into our gas tanks.

F him. No one expects real solutions from this bunch of asshole anyways.

[polticalpout]

55. Uhh, his first term tax cuts came and gas got more expensive

How the FK does making them permanent somehow now make gas prices go down????

[Gman]

56. The mo-fo doesn't miss a chance to take advantage of an issue

and twist it.

[Betty]

58. the bubble boy strikes again

no fucking clue what life on the outside is like.

[la la]

59. aw, well---

I guess he doesn't have that aide around anymore,ya know- the one who makes the DVDs and forces him to watch them--ala Katrina.

[margotb822]

65. It's all crap and profits

I did a little looking into this situation and I found some interesting information that only confirms the artificially high price of oil,

Here is a good article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12410064/ (it's from 2006, but still, if not more, pertinent)

Excerpts:

Who is making money from all this?
Right now, oil producers — both countries and companies — are among the biggest winners. Though the market price for oil has doubled in the past two years, the cost of producing each new barrel hasn’t gone up much. That means most the rise in price is pure profit. That’s why big oil companies have been reporting huge profit gains in the past year.

Given enough political pressure, there’s no reason Congress or the White House couldn’t impose a cap on U.S. gasoline prices. Many countries artificially control pump prices — either by heavily subsidizing gasoline to keep prices low or, more commonly, by imposing heavy taxes to reduce consumption.

The cost of crude oil accounted for about 47 percent of the cost of a gallon of regular gas in 2004, the latest figures available from the Dept of Energy. Federal, state, and local taxes accounted for about 23 cents of every dollar spent at the pump. Uncle Sam gets about 18.4 cents per gallon and state and local taxes average about 21 cents — though state taxes vary widely. Refining costs and profits take about 18 cents from every dollar spent to fill up your tank. The cost of distribution and marketing, along with retail dealer profits, together make up another 12 percent.
(For non-math people, this adds up to $1.34 of production cost/taxes/retailer profits per gallon. Where does the rest go? Straight into the pockets of the oil production corporations)

My personal take: The demand for oil is inelastic, hence the fact that I actually paid $3.69 for regular today. I had no choice. In a time of war, the demand at the governmental level only increases and those artificially high costs are passed down from the government to the tax payers (or just tacked onto our debt, at this point). If there were to be a cap on the price of gas, it would stimulate the economy because the price of goods would drop (due to a drop in the cost of production and shipping), people would be able to spend more money on goods and travel, consumer confidence would rise, bolstering the economy.

For those that don't believe the price of oil is artificially high, why do oil companies set consecutive quarters of record profits? Oil is not scarce, it is not difficult to extract or refine. If these were true, the money would be going back into the cost of production. It is not the case. The governments and the oil companies are taking our money all the way to their bank.

www.serveoutloud.blogspot.com

[Cass]

67. What a jackass.

"That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."

:grr:


Arrogant jerk. 1/20/09 can't come soon enough.

[BearSquirrel2]

68. I suppose if you like SUVs ...

I suppose if you like SUVs, they will become cheap in coming months.