Gas Prices Or Bust

As gas prices shoot up, our wallets are emptied. Americans are steadily growing more fearful of the looming $5.00 per gallon gas predictions and they are turning to the government for answers. Here’s my answer, stop those rebels in Libya. While the answer is simple enough, the execution is another story. Our government is afraid of over-throwing the rebels because of the repercussions that are sure to come, our third war. While I agree with these hesitations, I still have to ask myself if sky-rocketing oil and gas prices are worth it. This time last year, oil cost on average $72.90 a barrel. Today we are looking at $104 a barrel. Sure if gas prices continued to rise gradually, we could make it work. Life goes on, it always does. But with oil prices skyrocketing, sooner rather than later, other consumer commodities will have noticeable price jumps. For instance, food, clothing, and tire prices are soon to get higher. Farmers are raising crop prices due to gas prices in transporting the good. Clothing and tires are only two more examples of this same domino effect. The American people will have to start cutting spending expenses from here and there. Before we know it, there will be nothing left in the budget for all the fun stuff. There will be less eating out, no more movie nights at the theater or shopping sprees. I don’t know about anyone else, but there goes my livelihood. I know there is no easy solution to this problem, but the government has got to get in there and do something to help its people. We can’t spend as much every day, okay that’s fine. What about those businesses that people stop contributing to because of budget cuts? The café down your street goes out of business due to high food costs and lack of leisurely customers eating out. The alterations shop three miles away shuts down because no one can afford to have alterations done when their cars are costing them double what they did a couple months ago. When we look at it in a bigger scheme of things rather than just gas prices, the price of oil is much more detrimental in the long run. If the government isn’t going to get in there and seize the oil refineries in the west, do something else. Do anything to get the prices down.

Gitmo

I am sure that everyone reading this has heard of Guantanamo Bay. In the slim chance that someone hasn’t, it is the United States prison for people whom they think are possible terrorists or a huge threat to our country. There is talk that American’s torture the inmates there while attempting to get answers. Whether or not that is true, I personally find the prison to be a beneficial thing to the American people. An editorial writer for the NY Times and I have different views. I read this anonymous piece that was written from his perspective. He referred to the Bush Administration as being “tortuous and abusive” because of the decision to keep the camp up and running. The writer feels that the prison is a symbol of Congress’ “spinelessness”. As you may have already assumed, he speaks strongly of how badly the camp should be shut down and that occupying inmates of Guantanamo Bay should either be tried in the United States or shipped off to other countries to be dealt with. I could not disagree more with him. The whole point of the war after 9/11 was to keep further terrorist attacks from occurring on American soil and hurt our people even more. If Guantanamo Bay was to shut down and the inmates moved to the high-risk prison in Kansas, as is planned in the event of closure, how will the people there feel about allowing their children out to play? What is the point of bringing those terrorists into ours lands when the whole idea of this war we are in is drawn from the hopes of ending terrorism? It’s blasphemy to think this is a good idea. Gitmo is not what many people say it is. Many journalists and doctors have been to the camp to tour it and have all reported back that it is not an abusive place and that it is all very standard in comparison to United States prisons. If there is torturing going on, on the American’s part so be it. We are at war with the Middle East and it is the government’s job to protect its people from further attacks. With that being said, I do not think that Guantanamo Bay should be shut down. In no way did this editorial from the NY Times sway my thought process. If anything, I feel that there was not enough research done to provide an effective argument.

Less is more

I heard recently about the ongoing issue within The House about the need for federal budget cuts. Just today, I found a good article on the NY Times website that really fueled my interest on this topic. In a nut shell, it said that due to our nation's lack of money, federal spending needs to decrease and soon. Majority of the Republican Reps are behind the $61 billion cuts while President Obama sees it fit to take the "message to the American People". The argument is now becoming heated over the fact that the Republicans have aimed the cuts at the new health care program while President Obama and other followers would rather find another way to cut spending and help the nation as a whole. I found the article interesting in that I feel like I got a little bit of both sides to the argument in it. Kind of like a ‘he said, she said’ scenario. The Republicans said this so Obama said that. I’m interested to see how it turns out in two weeks.