As Congress fights over who is to blame for high gas prices, and passes bills seeking to address the issue, a new poll has found that few Americans have faith that the price will drop or even stay the same.
According to a new Rasmussen poll, 71 percent of American adults think gasoline will reach $5 per gallon by the end of the summer, while 21 percent said it is unlikely that gas will reach the $5 mark. Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 adults by phone on May 21 and 22.
The House moved May 20 to create a Department of Justice task force to investigate foreign and domestic oil companies for potential price gouging and conspiracy to alter market prices. The House also passed a bill, with the goal of lowering the price of oil, calling on President Bush to stop purchasing oil to deposit in the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve. Republicans have blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for high gas prices, dubbing recent increases the "Pelosi Premium."
The Club for Growth says it will begin airing television and radio ads today in Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Montana opposing the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill.
The ads will call on Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to vote against the legislation when the Senate considers it next.
Sens. John Warner (R-Va.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduced the legislation in 2007 to direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a program to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. The Club for Growth says the bill's proposals to limit those emissions would be disastrous for the economy. See one of the television ads below:
Sometimes, the most effective approach to getting detainees to talk isn't the most obvious one, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) reminded his colleagues Wednesday.
In arguing against a Democratic measure that would prohibit contractors from detainee operations, Hunter recalled witnessing an unlikely contractor's effective interrogation.
"It was an older lady reading a children's book to a detainee. And I said, 'You've gotta be kidding me. You know, I expected all the classic stuff like we see in the movies,'" Hunter said on the House floor.
He continued: "If you've got somebody that you can contract with that can walk into a room and walk out maybe two days later, maybe eight days later, maybe six months later, with information that will save lives of your troops and advance a mission, who cares if that's an elderly lady who happens to be a civilian and may not want to join the Army."
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), somewhat surprised by Hunter's anecdote, responded, "Make her an offer she can't refuse if she's that good."
Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) is set to introduce a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.
Broun, a first-term congressman, criticized last week's California Supreme Court ruling striking down a state ban on same-sex marriage.
"Marriage as an institution exists solely between one man and one woman," said Broun in a press release. "Americans have traditionally recognized this definition as being the most beneficial arrangement for the creation of stable family structures and for the upbringing of children."
President George W. Bush and Republicans have staunchly supported a federal marriage amendment. But the last push for an amendment stalled in 2006 when it failed to get the necessary two-thirds of support needed in House.
Since succeeding late Rep. Charlie Norwood last July, Broun has positioned himself as a social conservative. He has called for a ban on pornographic materials on military bases, which has earned him criticism from libertarian-minded conservative bloggers.
Ten state treasurers and comptrollers plus asset managers for investment firms--a group controlling $2.3 trillion--are calling on Senate leaders to pass legislation that addresses climate change.
The group includes the global head of asset management for Deutsche Bank, the global head of corporate responsibility for the Man Group (the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund operator),
The House of Representatives voted this afternoon to create an oil antitrust task force at the Department of Justice (DoJ), and to allow foreign oil cartels to be prosecuted in U.S. courts.
As House Republicans have demanded a solution to high gas prices from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Pelosi posed today's vote as a strong answer.
"The House today with a strong bipartisan and veto-proof margin voted to hold foreign oil cartels and Big Oil accountable," Pelosi said in a statement that called the bill a move "to protect American consumers."
House Republicans have recently blamed Pelosi for high gas prices. In floor speeches and press releases, they have pointed to an increase in gas prices since Democrats took the majority in Congress in 2006, dubbing the increase the "Pelosi Premium."
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For Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), the housing crisis has hit close to home.
"My personal story is that the house right next to [mine] has been in foreclosure for a year and my property value dropped 20 percent this year," he told the Rochester Post-Bulletin in a story about Congress's attempts to soften the impact of the crisis.
Walz and Democrats in both chambers support expanding the power of the Federal Housing Authority to insure refinanced mortgages, though conservative Republicans worry about the bill becoming a bailout for homeowners who don't deserve one. The House has already passed its bill and the Senate is working on a similar one. President Bush, however, vowed earlier this month to veto the House bill.
Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said today that the GOP should be embarrassed by House Republicans' votes for the farm bill.
100 Republicans voted for the bill, which Toomey says is full of "egregious" spending measures. The bill passed with a large enough majority to override a veto; the White House has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill over its tax provisions.
House Republicans today unveiled their "American Families Agenda," a range of proposals including 47 bills that, Republicans say, would update laws to reflect the needs of modern families.
The agenda's premise is that American families have changed since the 1950s: more single parents and working mothers have meant a new set of needs for families -- needs laws should address.
The agenda includes bills to increase domestic energy production, train underprivileged women under the Small Business Administration, allow workers to trade overtime for time off, provide tax credits for health insurance, and increase penalties on sex offenders.
House Republican Conference Vice Chair Kay Granger (Texas), who spearheaded the agenda, says it will assure five solutions for families: healthcare and retirement security, access to education, protection for children from predators, support for military families, and more time and money (including lower energy costs, assistance for small businesses, and facilitation of taking time off work).
Granger unveiled the agenda at a press conference this afternoon with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.), and other Republican House members.
Oil executives have been asked to return to Congress later this month to testify on rising oil prices.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today called top executives from Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP America, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips to testify before his committee Wed., May 21 on "the skyrocketing price of oil."
The hearing will examine oil's effect on gas prices, in addition to "speculation and manipulation of the oil commodity market, anticompetitive practices by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), artificial limits on supply, and the oil industry
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