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Democrats in Congress increasingly are putting pressure on Wall Street speculators to pull back from the oil markets, effectively blaming them for the unseasonable spike in oil and gas prices -- which has caused a headache for the White House as well as cash-strapped families.
For weeks, Republicans have called for more domestic oil production while Democrats push anew for clean-energy investment. It's the same fight that plays out almost every time gas prices surge, and one that is particularly shrill in an election year.
But as President Obama argues there's little his administration can do in the short-term to ease the pain at the pump, congressional Democrats this past week claimed federal regulators could have an effect by cracking down on Wall Street.
"We have a responsibility to ensure that the price of oil is no longer allowed to be driven up by the same Wall Street speculators who caused the devastating recession that working families are now experiencing," wrote 70 lawmakers in a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Investors like hedge funds are big players in the oil markets, bidding on futures contracts and potentially affecting the price of oil. How big of an impact those speculators have, and whether they actually serve a constructive purpose, is a matter of fierce debate.
Originally posted by xuenchen
But Obama will be blamed anyway ?
“Drivers are paying a heavy price for the Bush administration’s failure to enact a comprehensive energy strategy,” Pelosi said.
“Years of Bush Administration's policies that have favored big oil over the consumers have resulted in record dependence on foreign oil, leaving American families and businesses to pay even higher prices.”
Originally posted by The Old American
Originally posted by xuenchen
But Obama will be blamed anyway ?
Why not? If Democrats could blame Bush, why can't Republicans blame Obama?
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Blaming Bush for High Gas Prices
In 2007, when the average national price ranged from $2.17 to $3.22, then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., demanded that the Federal Trade Commission investigate Big Oil for "price manipulation." In 2008, presidential candidate Obama urged the Justice Department "to open an investigation into whether energy traders have been engaged in illegal activities that have helped drive up the price of oil and food."
Obama also called for "a windfall profits penalty on oil selling at or over $80 per barrel." As of Christmas 2010, a barrel of oil sold at slightly above $90. What happened to the windfall profits tax?