It's Never His Fault

by Steve Soto

Oil shoots past $100 a barrel today, well in advance of this summer’s driving season, in what is seen by some as just the latest commodity price rally by foreign investors looking for dollar-denominated crude oil futures. Even in the current environment where supplies are now meeting declining demands, consumers still get screwed because such speculation drives up the price of oil paid by drivers while investors and oil companies still make out like the bandits they are. And after seven years of a Bush-Cheney/Big Oil economy, where the profit concerns of the privileged few outweigh the national security and economic needs of the many, you can count on the members of Bush’s Stepford cult to tell us that 1) watching this country lose seven critical years towards energy independence and diversification are not Bush’s fault; but rather 2) is all Clinton’s fault.

The manufacturing sector contracted in February, but thanks to the plunging dollar, exports are the only thing holding the economy together right now, at least until any worldwide recession wipes that out as well. The service sector of the economy is expected to show even greater contraction later this week. But again, we’ll be told by the Bush cultists that even after seven years in office, none of this economic performance is Bush’s fault, yet these same folks are the first to tell us that Bush tax policies get all the credit for the GDP and anemic employment reports we’ve seen.

Construction fell last month as well, but not just homebuilding. Commercial construction also went down, as did government spending on highways and other projects at the state and local level. A far-sighted administration would tackle both the infrastructure deficit and the economic downturns by dumping billions into new roads and bridges with general fund monies and increased aid to the states. Instead, this administration opposes necessary funding here at home by tying all such funding to their repeated demand that the federal gas tax never increase, while they have no problem making taxpayers on Main Street USA shovel those billions that aren't going to our roads here to Baghdad, so that GOP campaign contributors can waste it on disaster capitalism over there. And once again, we’ll be told that the state of our roads and bridges after seven years isn't Bush’s fault, but rather the fault of Democrats somehow.