What can Obama do in the next six months to bring gas prices down?

[DuaneBidoux]

Your thoughts...just hoping to drive a good debate.

[Riftaxe]

1. Posturing

it made prices go up, it can make prices go down.

[Tunkamerica]

2. INVADE CANADA!!

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. Bring all the troops home, single payer, arrest Bush and Cheney

make some 'real' arrests on wall street, insurance companies and banks

that ought to lower the price some.

[bluestateguy]

3. Suspend the gas tax and open up the SPR

You asked for solutions. You did not ask for policy consequences.

[grahamhgreen]

4. Make futures trading illegal. End the wars. Nationalize the oil co's.

[Maven]

5. Nothing. But he can level with the American people about the future of the oil-based economy.

Which is unlikely, but here's hoping.

[99th_Monkey]

6. Reserves.

This was discussed several months ago as an option, but then
haven't heard much since then to suggest it's still being considered.

[DCBob]

19. Agreed. Need to dip into the reserves temporarily.

Get the price down below a hundred. The slowly replace.

[Common Sense Party]

7. Reduce demand? I don't think that's in his power. n/t

[kenny blankenship]

8. Sweet fuck all.

Now that prices are going up, lashed on by an inflationist Fed policy, Obama is reduced to looking on as a helpless bystander.

I would feel sorry for him, but you know he was fine with letting the bankers rob us all blind- which is what is going on.

When you pay crazy money for gas and food it's because the busted banks have been flooded with cash to make them whole again, and they've made big money by speculating on commodities as well as in the stock market. See, they're not sure in this economic climate that you need stocks, but they are sure you will need food and gasoline. Demand for such commodities is not so elastic even in the face of hard times. That makes these prime candidates for speculation. The crooks who caused the economic collapse were refloated and made whole, but you will pay for that. Sure they're still insolvent if post-Enron accounting rules are applied, but inflation has been used as a gimmick to restart their cash flow and make it look positive. The Fed, whose policies are creating the inflation, couldn't give a flaming turd for you or me; they are the tool and creation of the big banks. In their plan, you are paying, and your kids will pay, to repair Wall Street's balance sheets through inflation. It was decided when Obama chose not to confront the banks with their massive fraud and to force them to take cramdowns or to go into receivership. So, if Obama ends up paying the political price for holding us down, while his big donors on Wall St. rob working America's last coins at the gas pump, it's kind of hard to feel sorry for him.

[girl gone mad]

10. Well said.

[KG]

16. pretty much sums it up.

[TygrBright]

9. Nationalize the oil industry?

I'm not saying he SHOULD.

I'm not even saying it would be a good idea.

And he'd never do it anyway.

But it WOULD work... temporarily, at least.

speculatively,
Bright

[safeinOhio]

11. Windfall tax, 50%, on

oil companies profit anytime the pump price average goes over $3.50/gallon. Adjust for inflation.

That's my 2 cents worth.

[Festivito]

12. Do you mean temporarily or long-term?

Temporarily, the reserves would lower it, but leave us vulnerable to attack at home and abroad.

Long-term is a heavy problem. Gold, Euros, Yen rise showing our dollar is dropping, yet we want oil to be the same price in dropping dollars. We either need to strengthen the dollar, and, or, force the producers to take less than they want or even force them to produce the oil at a loss to themselves.

There are things like invading Iran killing tens-of-millions of people using nukes and stealing the oil as we did thieve the oil from Iraq.

We could try to fund an alternative energy blitz and reduce our need quickly, but this would involve increasing the debt irresponsibly as though we were irresponsible Republicans.

We could put caps on prices as did some schmuck from NC (embarrassingly a Dem, sheesh! It did not pass.) and watch supplies dwindle (along with the pandemonium that would ensue) but, the price would be the same until the last drop someone would sell, sold. But, all the people coming for you with pitch forks might get us to drop this idea, quickly.

[taterguy]

13. It was a guy from South Carolina that proposed the cap on price

My state has enough embarrassing pols without adding the ones from border states.

[Festivito]

14. My mistake, North Myrtle Beach, SOUTH Carolina cap idea.

Forgive me, please.

I have RW family there in SC, and friends I'd like to keep in NC.

[nevergiveup]

17. Pray a lot

[Canuckistanian]

18. Nationalize Exxon n/t

[sendero]

20. The SPR..

... is for emergencies/disasters. High prices are not an emergency. Not only that, but dumping the entire contents of the SPR onto the market would barely blip prices, it's just not that much oil and it is of very low quality.

There is pretty much NOTHING Obama can do to solve this, this is a product of a falling dollar (caused by Quantitative Easing i.e. the printing of trillions of dollars).

While Obama had a chance early in his tenure to do something about the economic mess, he chose to install the people who caused the problem to fix the problem. They "fixed" the problem for Wall Street (to the extent it CAN be fixed) at the expense of Main Street. That is not working for America, it is not going to ever work and now the window of opportunity to fix the problem has been squandered.

Obama will be faced with a crappy economic backdrop in 2012 and will need a near miracle to hold on to his job IMHO.

[Nikia]

21. Subsidize alternatives

Maybe that won't help in 6 months, but wouldn't it be great if most people would have the option in 6 years of not ever having to buy gasoline again? The Mideast would become of minimal concern to us and we could have real energy independence. Maybe in 20 years, places sell gas will become relatively rare, just like places selling leaded gasoline are now.

[hfojvt]

22. set the speed limit at 55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvV3nn_de2k