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red states rule
05-16-2008, 06:13 AM
Given all the promises Dems made to get elected in 2006 - and long forgotten by the Dems - do their supporters actually believe they can fullfill the same promises this time around?


Campaigning on ignorance
by R. Emmett Tyrrell,

snip

First, consider the Democrats' cruel exploitation of their supporters' hopes and fears regarding rising gasoline prices. Both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have talked as though those prices can be lowered. Mrs. Clinton specifically talks of lowering federal gas taxes during the summer. That will do it, but only for the summer. The problem is that oil demand worldwide has exceeded supply. As legendary oilman Boone Pickens has been warning for several years, the world can produce about 85 million barrels of oil a day and demand — thanks to growing prosperity in developing nations — now exceeds that production level. Even if somehow the world could produce more than 85 million barrels daily, we do not have refinery capacity to turn the oil into gasoline. Environmentalists oppose increasing refinery capacity. Doing so will take years. America needs to develop alternative energy sources, and market pressure will ensure this development more effectively than demagoguery.

Likewise the candidates are deceiving their supporters when they promise to make the country "independent of foreign oil." We shall not be independent of foreign oil for years to come, whatever progress we make with alternative sources of energy. Drilling into known oil reservoirs in this country and developing nuclear, solar and wind power will relieve our dependence on foreign oil, but 62 percent of our oil consumption is from foreign oil. Oil production here peaked in 1970, and what domestic oil is left will not markedly relieve our need for foreign oil for years. Again alternative sources of energy are needed.

Or consider the Democrats' promise to pay for their new or expanded programs by eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Though neither the Obama nor the Clinton campaigns is forthcoming with the costs of its promises, the National Taxpayers' Union estimates that the Obama platform will increase federal spending by $307.3 billion. The Clinton platform's price tag is $226.1 billion. No rollback of the Bush tax cuts would cover that kind of wanton spending increase. The Heritage Foundation puts the figure at under $60 billion annually. Amazed by the dishonesty of the presidential candidates, The Washington Post's economics columnist lamented this week that "[t]he candidates dissemble because they believe that Americans don't want the truth. It would be too upsetting."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080516/COMMENTARY/651671817/1012