Country on wrong track
Isn’t it odd that you don’t hear much from the politicians regarding the gas or heating prices going up and up.
This has never happened at this time of the year. Could it be that this year being a presidential year has anything to do with this problem? With money pouring into their coffers, the oil industry has their lobbyists spending billions on this election, buying and controlling Congress.
At the present time Congress has one of the lowest ratings — around 11 percent — which tells all of us about the direction this country is heading. It’s not for the betterment of millions of its people struggling to make ends meet.
The politicians got it made. They get pay and benefits no matter how much time they put in to address the issues. No matter whether you are a Democrat or a Republican there is a lot of blame to go around. The politicians go where the money is. That’s how their votes go. Lobbyists control a lot of the politicians, especially those from the oil industry.
With the price of a barrel of oil at $100, you ask yourself why, when there is so much drilling and producing of oil. America is in the midst of an oil boom. It is producing more crude oil and for the first time in decades and has become a net exporter of petroleum products, such as jet fuel, heating oil and gasoline.
America exported more oil-based fuels than it imported in the first nine months of last year. Production that has been going on has U.S. imports of crude oil down. Today half of net petroleum imports come from the western hemisphere, and half of that comes from Canada. Only 12 percent came from Saudi Arabia, not from Iran or Iraq.
What has happened to the middle class? Consider all the unemployment, loss of health care, loss of homes, poverty, and the high cost of living and you have to wonder if these politicians have looked into the mirror lately. But we the people must also look into a mirror. Do we concern ourselves with what is happening around us?
One of the biggest tools we have and about the only tool we have is the “right to vote.” People must turn out in larger numbers, and also educate yourself on how you vote. Changes must be made in this country. Congress must get back to why the people voted for them.
Right now, the Republican slogan is to defeat Obama, forget the economy, the unemployed, home foreclosures, poverty and health care. This country can only get stronger by addressing the issues that are so important.
William Rostich
Footedale