cur-mud-geon:
anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner
Fighting off tax increases on gasoline has been difficult enough in Wisconsin without having to fight off federally-caused increases.
The U.S. Senate has approved a bill that will impose $29 billion in new taxes on oil companies. Either they stole a play from Gov. Doyle’s book, or vice versa, or there is a tremendous coincidence involved. Both bills ostensibly are aimed at penalizing "Big Oil" for making too much money (a bogus argument). We understand that those tax increases will be passed directly on to those of us who buy the product. We also know that congressional actions aimed at the car manufacturers requiring them to improve mileage will have the same impact...the price of vehicles will increase significantly!
The "get Big Oil" legislation that is part of the budget debate in Wisconsin will cause our gas prices to increase by $.05 to $.07 per gallon. That is chump change compared to the hit we’re all going to take if the federal bill is approved by the House of Representatives and becomes law.
The federal bill will have consumers nationwide paying an average of $3.16 to $3.79 per gallon next year. Remember that we in Wisconsin have the pleasure of always paying more than the national average due to higher than ordinary gas taxes, and especially when “reformulated” gasoline is part of the equation. Our expectations for per gallon costs could realistically be from $3.25 to $4.00 or more!
That should be bad enough yet even more sickening is this estimate from the Heritage Foundation analysis:
By 2016, all states can expect gas prices in excess of $6.00 per gallon. Consumers would spend an average of $1,445 more per year on gasoline in 2016 than in 2008.
It is way past time for you to get involved if you’ve not been involved before. Call or write to your state senators and representatives. Call or write to your U.S. senators and representatives. Tell them you're fed up, you can't afford it and just won't take it anymore. Elections are meant as the tool for change when we voters deem it necessary. It is beginning to seem more and more necessary!
