{"id":1596,"date":"2008-05-02T08:47:56","date_gmt":"2008-05-02T12:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=1596"},"modified":"2008-05-02T08:47:56","modified_gmt":"2008-05-02T12:47:56","slug":"gasfood-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=1596","title":{"rendered":"Gas\/Food crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember when I was in high school, the “green” movement was in it’s infancy. They clung to every “crisis” they could think up. There was a new ice age coming, the world was going to starve to death by the year 1990, we were all going to get black lung disease…blah, blah, blah. Well, it seems that we didn’t starve to death in 1990, so the new greens have decided that they’ll create a food crisis with this bio-fuel idea, and their new idea seems to be working well (The Washington Times<\/a>);<\/p>\n

President Bush yesterday asked Congress to authorize $770 million to ease the global food crisis, most of which will be focused on Africa, while the administration denied that corn-for-ethanol subsidies are a major cause of the worldwide surge in food prices.<\/p>\n

“We’re sending a clear message to the world that America will lead the fight against hunger for years to come,” Mr. Bush said in a statement to reporters in the White House.<\/p>\n

But agricultural experts testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that high food prices are here to stay, as robust demand for food worldwide collides with record fuel costs to put unprecedented pressure on food prices.<\/p>\n

Although the prices for basic foods like corn, wheat and oil have been soaring, the prices paid to farmers are only a small part of what consumers pay at the store. As much as 75 percent of the retail price of food can be attributed to processing, packaging, transportation and distribution. These costs have also risen substantially, mainly because of high fuel prices.<\/p>\n

“With the average food item traveling more than 1,500 miles before reaching the final consumer, it is no wonder that food costs are increasing,” Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union, told the Joint Economic Committee. “When looking back over the last seven years, gasoline prices have increased 198 percent and diesel fuel prices have increased almost 250 percent.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course one way to solve the gas problem, and with it, the food problem, is to build more refineries and tap into our own oil resources off of our coasts (seein’s how the Chinese and Cubans are already doing it anyway) and in Alaska – but that’s too easy, I suppose.<\/p>\n

The other day I wrote about the Virginia governor<\/a> who is actually considering raising state taxes on gas. Obama must be his mentor, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/a> he intends to vote against suspending the federal tax on gas, to save the taxpayers a bit of money;<\/p>\n

A range of economists, including Gregory Mankiw, who was chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, and Leonard Burman, who directs the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, have criticized the proposal because it would save drivers little while encouraging gasoline consumption and depleting the federal Highway Trust Fund. Sen. Obama opposes the holiday for the same reasons.<\/p>\n

But the political popularity of gas-price relief illustrates the uphill climb facing Sen. Obama. After making his plea Thursday at a retirement community in Columbia City, Ind., an older voter asked him why he couldn’t support a gas-tax holiday that would be funded by a tax on oil companies, as Sen. Clinton has proposed, because it would offer some short-term relief. “A lot of us are short term,” she quipped.<\/p>\n

Sen. Obama said that a tax on oil companies should instead be used for long-term investments in alternative energy. He also has reminded voters of his proposed tax cut for middle-class families.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yep, that sacred cow for the Democrats, tax revenue. Lord knows we don’t people to get used to spending the money they earned, they might like it. While I agree that suspending the gas tax will do little, either in the long term or the short term, even, it’s still our money – pennies or dollars, any tax cut is good. And I don’t even buy gasoline or pay for the gas that heats my home – I just want the tax cuts for everyone else…that’s how much I hate taxes.<\/p>\n

Of course, the best way to drive down gas prices is to drive less. I haven’t seen any of that going on here in the Metro DC area. The train is still nearly empty everyday and the streets are always full of single-passenger autos. As long as people are willing to pay higher prices, the oil companies and OPEC are always willing to raise prices looking for the ceiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember when I was in high school, the “green” movement was in it’s infancy. They … Gas\/Food crunch<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-politics","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}