Madd Texan asked: WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (UPI) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to hold a vote on allowing new domestic oil drilling could result in a shutdown of the U.S. government, observers said.
House Republicans could refuse to support a temporary budget measure to keep the government funded beyond Sept. 30 if Democrats include in the legislation an extension of the congressional moratorium on offshore drilling, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.
The current moratorium is set to expire at the end of September.
Republicans have said they will block the spending bill or urge President George W. Bush to veto it.
A federal shutdown could lead to thousands of federal workers being furloughed, national parks being closed and benefits checks to veterans being delayed, the report said.
“So Republicans are going to tell seniors, ‘You’re being squeezed by high gas prices and high grocery prices and now we’re going to cut off your Social Security checks?’” said Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Democrats should drop the drilling bans.
“As far as I’m concerned, those bans end Sept. 30. And if they end on Sept. 30, fuel prices will head back down on Oct. 1,” he said.
http://www.amatechtel.com/news/wed/ac/Uus-drilling.R9pt_IaA.asp
Odyseus, you’re right about me not liking high gas prices, but if you think that having more gas will do nothing to bring the prices down, you don’t understand the how the market works or how speculators work. Why do you think that the price of oil suddenly started to fall the day after Bush lifted the presidential ban on offshore drilling? If Congress lifted it’s ban, the prices would fall dramatically. All it would take for the speculators to get out is for oil to get below $117. It was reported late last week that $117 was the automatic trigger to sell for the speculators/hedgefunds. Speculators and hedgefund operators are “holding the paper” and don’t want to be “stuck with delivery” if the price falls out of bed. Ask yourself this question, why did the speculators buy all the oil contracts if supplies weren’t going to be tight? China is increasing oil consumption as well as India and production hasn’t kept up with the demand.
Just the threat of the US going full tilt into offshore production will start the prices down, barring some hostilities in the Middle East.
My point is, why are the democrats trying to hide an extension of the drilling moratorium in the emergency spending bill? Why not bring it out for a vote on it’s own merrit? Because she knows that’s what the people want and she knows that she’ll lose.
Grace
