Why is the cost of gas so high? According to the Investment Business Daily, Congress for the last 31 years prevented us from building new oil refineries and defeated al chances of drilling offshore and on other proven high-oil reservoirs that could be recovered using clean technology at hand.

Also no nuclear power plants that produce cheap energy have been passed. France Germany and Japan get 20% to 80% of their energy needs supplied by these low –cost nuclear energy producers.

Instead they pass the ethanol mandates that place high tariffs on imported ethanol and mandate farmers, give huge blank check tax incentives and propagandize the farmers to grow corn.

The Wall Street Journal is weighing in.

"Corn ethanol can now join the scare over silicone breast implants and the pesticide Alar as among the greatest scams of the age…. it's worth recounting how much damage this ethanol political machine is doing.”

"To create just one gallon of fuel, ethanol slurps up 1,700 gallons of water… The record 30 million acres the U.S. will devote to ethanol production this year will consume almost a third of America's corn crop while yielding fuel amounting to less than 3% of petroleum consumption."

Picked up this new feed off Reuters
Corporate Presidential Campaign Giving Surges
    By Kevin Drawbaugh
    Reuters

“Washington - Corporate America is pouring money into the US presidential campaign at an unprecedented rate, with a torrent of donations coming from the businesses behind the subprime mortgage crisis.

 Facing a government crackdown over predatory lending and a troubled housing finance system, Wall Street and the real estate industry were among the top political givers in 2007, a campaign finance watchdog group said on Sunday.

 Leading all corporate donors in campaign donations as of the end of last year was investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, based on an analysis of Federal Election Commission records, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

 The next four largest corporate donors were Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, according to the center's fourth-quarter preliminary analysis, which is subject to revision.

 Investment banks, commercial banks and real estate companies altogether have pumped almost $34 million into the presidential race, with Democratic leaders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama getting the most money, the center said.”

Check the full story here

This legal bribery is absolutely nuts. Our country is going down the toilet. According to Harvard Law professor and bankruptcy expert Elizabeth Warren, two-income families today make 75% more in inflation-adjusted dollars, but have less money to spend than one-income families did 30 years ago.

1out of 5 jobs is a political government job whose average pay much exceeds average private sector pay.  30 years ago 1 out of 12 jobs was a government job. The government has fingers into practically every corner and aspect of our daily lives.

Until the hogs at the gate pandering for politicians votes end, or are put in jail, those lobbying government will funnel money into excess extravagance, greed and corruption. Otherwise, our system remains broken.

Should we be enforcing a 10% cutback in spending on all budgets, each year voters get to vote, by making it a permanent ballot box issue? Give the voting taxpayer control of the switch would send a clear signal to “public” workers to shape up. 

If the sum totals of the voters what to halt the budget cuts, that would show up in the vote. If they want more tax cuts, that will show up in the vote. That would be democracy in action. That could be another needed legal protection for  democracy  controlling checks and balances against political hogs and raw human greed.