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The Obama administration figures that it has read the national mood well. This therapeutic generation of Americans loves to talk and worry about problems and then assumes that either someone else will solve them or they will go away on their own.
And why not, since we have had periodic "energy crises" since 1974, have run budget deficits in most years since World War II, and have been warned about a looming Social Security meltdown for the last decade — and yet remain wealthy and affluent.
But now gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon in many places in California, and averages more than $3.50 nationwide. In response, the Obama administration is reportedly considering tapping into the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase supplies and drive down high prices brought on by a recovering world economy and unrest in the oil-rich Middle East.
Yet the reserve depot was not designed to alleviate periodic gas-price spikes, but to ensure our very survival during a global catastrophe that might result in a cutoff of most petroleum imports from overseas.
There are now more than 700 million barrels of stored oil in the reserve. In times of near-Armageddon, even that huge supply would provide for all of the nation's oil needs for only a single month. It would make up for all imported oil cutoffs for only two months.
Wrong To Drill
So how is it wise to tap this critical but finite reserve — especially when the current administration had prohibited new oil and gas production in large parts of the Gulf of Mexico and the western United States? The administration certainly will not reconsider new drilling in oil-rich areas in Alaska or elsewhere off the American coasts.
The message to Americans seems to be that it is OK to consume old oil stockpiled by previous generations (the reserve was begun in 1975), but quite wrong to drill for new oil to be used by the present generation.
This same self-centered approach characterizes the federal budget. The Obama administration appointed a national debt commission — only to ignore so far its recommendations because they're seen as too painful.
But note that the commission did not call for a balanced budget for years to come. It suggested that only after 26 more years of massive federal borrowing would we be able to ensure at last Social Security's long-term financial health.
The president often expresses concern over the escalating debt, but then he increased annual borrowing this year, leading to a record $1.6 trillion annual deficit. He senses that Americans can neither sustain the present borrowing nor endure the necessary cuts in federal spending, so in response, the mere promise of future frugality seems to excuse even greater present profligacy.
Everyone knows that the U.S. budget is being devoured by entitlements. Everyone also knows that of the Big Three — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — Social Security is the most solvable. Back-of-an-envelope solvable: Raise the retirement age, tweak the indexing formula (from wage ...
On March 2, two U.S. airmen, Nicholas Alden and Zachary Cuddeback, were gunned down at the airport in Frankfurt. Two other Americans were wounded. The assailant was a radical Muslim. This was a huge story to most Americans — but, naturally, not to our news media. If the amount of airtime is ...
The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians. Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called Employee Free ...
Whether Americans realize it or not, the last decade's path of congressional spending is unsustainable. Spending must be reined in, but what spending should be cut? The Republican majority in the House of Representatives fear being booted out of office and are understandably timid. Their rule for ...
America seems trapped in an exploding Middle East minefield. Revolts are breaking out amid choke points of world commerce. Shiite populations are restive in the Gulf monarchies. Iran's youth are sick and tired of the country's 7th-century theocracy. Astride the Suez Canal, Egyptian demonstrators ...
Posted By: GrannyRob(3120) on 3/14/2011 | 11:45 AM ET
"Reason" doesn't count when you have democrats and their leadership, and their followers in the media and the voting booth, dancing their way down the road to he** ... and doing it exactly as planned.
Posted By: Env_Engr_Lives(135) on 3/14/2011 | 5:59 AM ET
Life and the economy are good while you're putting it on the credit care. Life and the ecomony are bad when you're in debt and have to pay it back.
Posted By: sevanclaig(800) on 3/12/2011 | 7:54 PM ET
Perfectly stated, Mr. Hansen-- "The generation that ran up the debt and was largely responsible for the Social Security crisis has a responsibility to make things right on its watch." It is not my child's debt. As a boomer, born late in the last statistical year, I will be happy to turn the lights off on a de***ably selfish (as a collective whole) generation.
Posted By: The Barnicle(1815) on 3/12/2011 | 11:57 AM ET
Nothing shocking here. o is the exact lib I tried to warn friends and relatives about before election. Someone on call-in station said forget trying to educate dems or closed minded people, just make sure repubs know that we expect them to do what is necessary to get country back from brink of going broke. And stop worrying about hurting lib feelings. I, yet, have not found a lib that cared about repub feelings.
Posted By: Bill NC(135) on 3/12/2011 | 7:10 AM ET
Honesty, straight talk, and leadership are greatly needed by this administration. Our governments have created and caused all of these crises over the past decades for power, control, and votes. We have been talking about oil and gasoline independence since the 70's. The history of SS, Medicare, and Medicaid proves that OBAMACARE will never be budget neutral and will cost TRILLIONS to fund and bankrupt the country. Honesty & straight talk"¦ not from this administration, Pelosi, and Reid.
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