It seems that Obama, while gladly taking credit for the drop in gas and fuel prices, desperately wants them to rise again.
President Barack Obama will propose a $10-per-barrel charge on oil to fund clean transportation projects as part of his final budget request next week, the White House said Thursday.
Oil companies would pay the fee, which would be gradually introduced over five years. The government would use the revenue to help fund high-speed railways, autonomous cars and other travel systems, aiming to reduce emissions from the nation’s transportation system.
It’s a classic example of manipulation. “We don’t want you to drive. We want you to use trains, buses and other travel systems instead. Instead of passing a law forbidding you to drive a car, which even Republicans might not permit just yet, we will pass a law making it less possible for you to afford to drive your own car. We will still call it a choice.” This is what manipulators do.
Obama said Friday that the investments would put the United States in a “much stronger position” in the coming decades, particularly if oil prices start to rise again. It makes more sense to levy the charge now while gas prices remain low for consumers, he contended.
This is also what manipulators do. “Raising the cost of oil is for your own good. It’s going to rise again anyway. So let’s get it over with now. Instead of reserving your pain for the future, or giving you time to plan for such price rises in the market, let’s impose the pain right now.” It’s also what sadists do. Masochists accept the pain, and welcome it as their due by their masters.
“I think we’ll look back and say, ‘that was a smart investment,’” Obama said in response to a question at a news conference Friday.
It’s called rationalization. Obama lies to himself aloud, distorting facts and leaving out essential facts to reach the emotionally desired conclusion. His premise is that if he says so aloud, it will no longer be a distortion. This is the man many of us put in charge of running the government of the freest, most brilliant, innovative and productive nation in human history. Sad.
The White House said the oil-fee proposal would invest an additional $20 billion per year to cut traffic and “provide new ways for families to get to work and school.” It would also put about $10 billion per year into regional travel systems and another $2 billion annually into clean transportation research.
It’s called blackmail. The government holds a monopoly on the building and maintenance of roads and highways. For decades, the government fails to maintain those roads, as it spends money on other programs and projects, while driving the nation into fiscal ruin. As the roads and highways deteriorate, the government says, “We promised to maintain these roads, but we never did. In order for us to fix them now, which was our responsibility all along, you will have to drive on these roads less, because we will raise the cost of gas to pay for it.”
Of course, all of this relies on ignorance. When a president decrees that gas and fuel shall cost more, he imposes this duty on oil companies, not directly on consumers. Everybody hates oil companies and considers oil companies evil, even though they’re the ones who bring the life-sustaining product to market. Yet when Obama’s action causes the oil companies to raise their prices, we don’t blame it on Obama; we blame it on the evil oil companies. That’s ignorance, the sort that is driving America into the ground.
In the last year of his presidency, Obama has said the country must stop subsidizing the “dirty” fossil fuels of the past and focus on clean, renewable fuels that do not exacerbate climate change.
Why are fossil fuels considered “dirty” while any other form of energy is considered pure, without consequence? There are pros and cons to all forms of energy. By the standard of human life, fossil fuels win hands down over any other type of energy. People live longer, healthier and better than ever before thanks to fossil fuels. That’s why the market for them is so demanding. It seems that Obama and environmentalists have it in for fossil fuels because they are, overwhelmingly, the form of energy that lifts millions out of poverty and sustains lives longer and healthier than any before.
Free markets and free science are welcome to bring on new and better methods of energy all the time. Obama issuing edicts will not do this. You cannot force innovation into existence. The automobile did not replace the horse and buggy because some inept politician or president issued an executive order making it so. Obama and his fellow environmentalists come across as the economic equivalents of puritans. They want to eradicate human happiness on earth for the sake of their promised land of utopian energy generated by hacks in Washington DC. Shame on us for letting them shame us, and for letting these economic puritans continue to get away with it.
