What needs to be changed and who created the problem?

Let’s just look at gasoline costs as one example:

Yes, gasoline prices have escalated. Do we want gas to cost less?  It can be done---and we voters have control.

With oil jumping to 98 dollars a barrel and no new refineries being built, we are still relying on oil from foreign countries. Why?  Because some of our liberal congressional members keep voting against drilling in Alaska, in the Gulf and other American sites. They ignore that new industrial nations like China and India are now competing for energy and thus bidding up oil prices as their citizens switch from bicycles to automobiles! They also ignore that much of our current oil is coming from OPEC nations that want to destroy the American economy.  (Columnist Morris Beschloss reported in his Nov. 26 column, “What was to have been a uniform final summation agreement by the OPEC leaders degenerated into arguments over the effect of fossil fuels on the world's climate; and the need to set up a two-tier standard for the world's rich and poor nations, as proposed by wacky President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Chavez wants the world's poverty-stricken nations to buy at a discount, while charging the global economic barons a premium.” )

As long as politicians put special interest groups with their higher campaign contributions above the needs of the general public (in this case, the so-called “environmentalists”) such financial folly will continue.

In addition, these same liberal Congressional members are more interested in labeling gasoline profits as “windfall” and are trying to figure out ways of taxing these profits to get more money for their own pork barrel projects.  Instead, Congress should be  encouraging these companies to invest these profits into more drilling and building new refineries which would lower the costs and reduce our dependency on foreign governments. 

Profits are often interpreted by media and politicians as riches for greedy corporations. Liberal candidates tend to pander to the people who believe this.  The following is an actual letter in one of today’s Gannett newspapers:

“Stop the stealing

Gas and oil prices - what a rip off. Our great oil companies have never made such high profits. Election year is out in full swing. The big question? Not one of our presidential hopefuls, Democrat or Republican, have said a word about what they would do to put a stop to this license to steal from our American people.”

It is so easy to forget how our system works. People forget that all money for future research, retooling, and improvements come from the true profits gained in the past. Also people invest only in companies that create profits. Would you buy shares in a company which lost money each year or just broke even? Would you continue your investment in any business if it never made improvements or never did research for the future?  Where do people, such as the letter writer above, think that new energy, products or new medical discoveries come from? 

All companies must use current profits for future investment. Of course, if there have been losses in past years, loans have to also be paid off from future gains. Fail to have the capital to cover past losses or to plan for a more competitive future and they face bankruptcy, a merger or a hostile takeover.  American automobile companies come to mind. Just look at what has happened to these once prominent and leading corporations when they did not plan for their own future!

Also, consider the ethanol scam being perpetuated right under the nation’s nose. It does not lower gasoline costs, but raises the costs of food as agriculture companies or farms sell much of their corn to oil companies instead of to bakeries, dairies and food manufacturers! Many former wheat farmers have switched to corn, causing higher wheat prices. Milk and bread prices have soared. So now we get hit by both higher gasoline prices and higher food bills!  If a politician has had no economic business experience, why vote for him or her? If you would not hire a candidate to run your own shop or home budget, don’t vote for him or her either!

Polls and the media keep telling us that the liberal majority finds the current economy is frightening and that they need a political change. The left-leaning candidates hail this news as positive for them in 2008. But wait a minute folks, they have had control this entire past year and blocked most conservative plans for years before that. It is their control of power that has kept oil from being taken by America from the gulf, while Venezuela drills there instead.  It is their control that keeps gas and food high and their control that threatens our nation’s defense.

We have stressed just one example of how Congressional liberals are costing you money. Remember too, that almost every Congressional member who has voted to keep our gasoline and food costs high has also bashed our winning strategy against terrorism while trying to get America to cut and run from Iraq at the height of our winning. Such actions keep our terrorist defense costs high and also cause more of our troops to be killed.

Yes, we do need a political change ---from a liberal control of Congress to a conservative control! Add a conservative presidency, too, and we shall see many good changes for America and its citizens.   Whether it is illegal immigration, national defense, a good economy with more available jobs and lower taxes, maintaining America as a Republic, stopping local government and our schools from continued takeovers by socialist or atheist forces, or keeping our country as a nation under God, we voters will decide all of this in 2008. The political pendulum continues its swing.  Will it continue to swing to the economy-killing socialism of the Left or back to the true American promise of the Right?  It is your decision, Mr. and Mrs. America!

Copyright by Lee Ellis