Oil and Taxes Add to the Political Potboiler Mix

Data source: US Dept. of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, March 2011

The GOP justifies its budget cuts while the Democrats criticize it; the former believes that the only way to reduce the already large deficit that the US has is to reduce spending, and the latter emphasizes that in an economy that is already high in unemployment, a reduction in the budget will only bring about a worse state of affairs.

And then we have the GOP accusing the Democrats and Obama’s administration of not tapping the nation’s oil reserves and instead spending large amounts of money to import oil from overseas – they claim that the rising gas prices in the country are an indication that the US is far too dependent on foreign sources for its energy needs, and that the strategic oil reserve must be opened now to prevent gas prices from soaring any further. House Speaker John Boehner criticized the government, saying that “the Obama Administration has consistently blocked American energy production that would lower costs and create new jobs”. Obama’s government counters this accusation with some statistics – domestic oil production was the highest in 2010 since 2003, so how could the Republicans say that not enough attention was paid to the issue? Also, Obama has said that there is presently no need to open the strategic petroleum reserve.

But as gas prices skyrocket following the crisis in Libya and other parts of the Middle East, there are calls from some quarters to increase gas taxes as a way to encourage people to buy fuel-efficient cars and discourage them from consuming more gas.

What with the budget cuts on one side and rising prices on the other, it’s going to be hard for most of the American public to make ends meet and stay out of debt. In such a scenario, it’s not easy to decide which party people are going to vote for when elections come around next year. And no matter how many promises are made and which party finally comes to power, there’s only one thing that can be said with certainty – the money pinch is going to be felt severely in the years to come, especially by the middle and working class people.

By-line:  This guest post was contributed by Phillip Donavan, who writes on the subject of Online Political Science Degree Programs . Phillip can be reached at his email id: mailto:phillip.donavan@gmail.com.

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