$5 a gallon of gas rant

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
I agree that actual ethanol fuel is a waste. Too much energy is used to produce it and it does lower mlg about 10% and provides less power. The 10% stuff is ok though. Messes up my 2 cycle engines though. Doesn't burn properly when mixed with oil.

Ethanol does hurt fuel lines that aren't made for it. Other than that I've never heard any actual fact based claims of engine damage to newer engines that aren't above 9/1 compression. Just fuel line deterioration. maybe debris from the fuel lines gets in the engine.

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
They just renewed those subsidies with a democrat house and senate. Repubs could not even stop it if they wanted to.

Did they bury that in the tax bill they just passed? I haven't heard that one. I know the pubs made quite a few concessions to keep the tax cuts for the top 2% in place.

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Um... Won't the new House of Representatives change things? Just pondering.

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
For the worse, most likely. They couldn't do anything about the gas situation even if they wanted to. Most likely they will use it as an excuse to start stripping the countryside for the meager amount of oil that is still available here. Then cut any programs that are intended to help with research and development of alternative energy sources. They've already been hard at work trying to turn the country against using anything but gas and oil for power. So I wouldn't expect much. Besides they won't be able to pass anything anyway. Obama will veto anything they come up with that's bad for the country. They'll have to wait till they get a pub in the big seat to pass all our tax dollars upstairs.

I hope they do something good. I really do. I care more about the country than which party is in office. I just don't have much faith based on their track record. Almost everything they do is directed at passing money up. They talk about trickle down, but mostly they defy gravity.

We can always keep our fingers crossed though.

 

[mgw]

Quote:
Sure hope so.

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Aaah ... why have republicans been able to stop just about everything? It's called "Filibuster"! Do you understand it takes 60 votes to get anything through the senate. The current count is 41 republicans and 59 democrats, not exactly a filibuster proof senate is it, do the math.
Blue dog democrats voted with republicans a majority of the time which is why we don't have the same health care that "We The Small People" are required to pay for members of congress.


Think about it ... Ask your senator why senators get "Life Time Health and Pension Benefits" at the same time Boehner and McConnell are telling us the U.S. can't afford Social Security and medicare but we can afford two wars, Ag subsidies, tax cuts for 2%'ers, prescription drug benefits, oil and coal subsidies, anti missile defense system to protect the U.S. against OBL's fly carpet air force ... ask ... let us know what they tell you if anything!

Personally I would like to re-start the draft for all men and women to instill some semblance of backbone back into our country, IMO there is none.

Joe
A really ticked off Vietnam Vet.

 

[knjinnm]

Hot off the press:

"Banana republic, here we come."


December 30, 2010
The New Voodoo
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Hypocrisy never goes out of style, but, even so, 2010 was something special. For it was the year of budget doubletalk — the year of arsonists posing as firemen, of people railing against deficits while doing everything they could to make those deficits bigger.

And I don’t just mean politicians. Did you notice the U-turn many political commentators and other Serious People made when the Obama-McConnell tax-cut deal was announced? One day deficits were the great evil and we needed fiscal austerity now now now, never mind the state of the economy. The next day $800 billion in debt-financed tax cuts, with the prospect of more to come, was the greatest thing since sliced bread, a triumph of bipartisanship.

Still, it was the politicians — and, yes, that mainly meant Republicans — who took the lead on the hypocrisy front.

In the first half of 2010, impassioned speeches denouncing federal red ink were the G.O.P. norm. And concerns about the deficit were the stated reason for Republican opposition to extension of unemployment benefits, or for that matter any proposal to help Americans cope with economic hardship.

But the tone changed during the summer, as B-day — the day when the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy were scheduled to expire — began to approach. My nomination for headline of the year comes from the newspaper Roll Call, on July 18: “McConnell Blasts Deficit Spending, Urges Extension of Tax Cuts.”

How did Republican leaders reconcile their purported deep concern about budget deficits with their advocacy of large tax cuts? Was it that old voodoo economics — the belief, refuted by study after study, that tax cuts pay for themselves — making a comeback? No, it was something new and worse.

To be sure, there were renewed claims that tax cuts lead to higher revenue. But 2010 marked the emergence of a new, even more profound level of magical thinking: the belief that deficits created by tax cuts just don’t matter. For example, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona — who had denounced President Obama for running deficits — declared that “you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.”

It’s an easy position to ridicule. After all, if you never have to offset the cost of tax cuts, why not just eliminate taxes altogether? But the joke’s on us because while this kind of magical thinking may not yet be the law of the land, it’s about to become part of the rules governing legislation in the House of Representatives.

As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, the incoming House majority plans to make changes in the “pay-as-you-go” rules — rules that are supposed to enforce responsible budgeting — that effectively implement Mr. Kyl’s principle. Spending increases will have to be offset, but revenue losses from tax cuts won’t. Oh, and revenue increases, even if they come from the elimination of tax loopholes, won’t count either: any spending increase must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere; it can’t be paid for with additional taxes.

So if taxes don’t matter, does the incoming majority have a realistic plan to cut spending? Of course not. Republicans say that they want to cut $100 billion in spending, which is itself small change in a $3.6 trillion federal budget. But they also say that defense, Medicare and Social Security — all the big-ticket items — are off the table. So they’re talking about a 20 percent cut in what’s left, which includes things like running the judicial system and operating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; they have offered no specifics about where the cuts will fall.

How will this all end? I have seen the future, and it’s on Long Island, where I grew up.

Nassau County — the part of Long Island that directly abuts New York City — is one of the wealthiest counties in America and has an unemployment rate well below the national average. So it should be weathering the economic storm better than most places.

But a year ago, in one of the first major Tea Party victories, the county elected a new executive who railed against budget deficits and promised both to cut taxes and to balance the budget. The tax cuts happened; the promised spending cuts didn’t. And now the county is in fiscal crisis.

Now the federal government has a lot more flexibility than a county government: it needn’t, and shouldn’t, balance its budget each year. The deficits of the past two years have actually been a good thing, helping to support the economy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

But Nassau County shows how easily responsible government can collapse in this country, now that one of our major parties believes in budget magic. All it takes is disgruntled voters who don’t know what’s at stake — and we have plenty of those. Banana republic, here we come.

 

[Carols Clucks]

Quote:
Huh! I have family still living in Cambria California not to far north of Santa Barbara, no tar balls. Oil drilling in Santa Barbara is still going on with existing rigs, no tar balls when I was there a couple of years ago.
We used to go to Santa Barbara every year when we lived in Orange County California (1975-2007) no tar balls from oil drilling but if there was a tanker spill, different story.

What is the source of your information?

Joe

Source of my information: my feet when I go to the beach. I live a mile away.

If you go in the winter, the tar is more firm and sticks less, in the summer it is worse. If you take your dog to the beach, they have tar on their feet. Look down when walking at the line where the last highest wave has been, not up high in the dry sand, if you look down, you will see black tar balls.

 

[mgw]

Joe, I agree it is the govt that is the problem. The size of the fed govt and their entitlements are taking this country down a very bad road. What is hard to figure out is why pass a trillion dollar stimulus, it grew the fed payroll by 30% what an outrage. Then pass the healthcare package that will grow it by another 16% more outrage. All the money to run theseprograms will come from the private sector ie; you and me. You would think that things would be better after spending more money than all govts from George Washington to George Bush combined. But it is not is it? The pubs had no reason to filibuster from 01 to 06 cause they had majority. The dems did have a filibuster proof senate until Kennedy died and Brown took his place. It really does not matter what side we are on, unless we were politicians . To them party is everything we are just the unwashed masses.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Quote:
I agree that actual ethanol fuel is a waste. Too much energy is used to produce it and it does lower mlg about 10% and provides less power. The 10% stuff is ok though. Messes up my 2 cycle engines though. Doesn't burn properly when mixed with oil.

Ethanol does hurt fuel lines that aren't made for it. Other than that I've never heard any actual fact based claims of engine damage to newer engines that aren't above 9/1 compression. Just fuel line deterioration. maybe debris from the fuel lines gets in the engine.

Absolutely. We've purchased 2 weedeaters in the 3 years we have been in our house. Can't find any gas around here without ethanol... unless we drive a hour a half to get it.