Obama: We're Digging Ourselves In Deeper
Referencing the new employment figures, Obama said:
We've got a big hole that we're digging ourselves out of.
There's just one problem with that, says Hot Air's Ed Morrissey.
Digging one’s self out of a hole generally means getting mired deeper. Perhaps President Obama was being uncharacteristically honest?
Judging by the recommendations proposed by Obama's oil commission, Rory Cooper argues, Obama does indeed seem intent on causing the U.S. to be mired ever deeper into an economic morass.
For the past nine months, Pres. Barack Obama has unilaterally taken steps that will lead to higher gas prices for struggling consumers, and fewer jobs and economic growth for our nation. Now Obama’s handpicked oil-spill commission (made up of environmentalists and political allies) has recommended more steps that will take us farther down that path of needless economic chaos — and, unsurprisingly, President Obama has responded to this report by looking into additional unilateral actions he can take outside the oversight of Congress.
The commission report took its cues from President Obama, calling for more regulation, more government control, and less drilling. They spent considerable time criticizing systemic industry problems, even though they admit that the Macondo accident was a result of individual human error, and that over 2,500 deepwater wells have been safely drilled in the Gulf.
[...]
[T]he Obama commission apparently failed to consider the impact of reforms on taxpayers and on our energy industry. While the commission correctly included a focus on risk-based assessment for all individual offshore activities and operations, they spent entirely too much time appeasing environmental activists with proposals for ways to slow the industry down, like expanding the time it takes for a lease application to be reviewed and recommending a vast amount of new industry-wide regulations.
This is exactly what President Obama aims to do: slow down or stop entirely the drilling of fossil fuels in the U.S., raise the price of existing and new supply wherever it comes from, and use unilateral executive-branch action to make gas so expensive that alternative energy sources will become viable dollar-to-dollar.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Obama: We're Digging Ourselves In Deeper
He's got a strategy with that hole he's digging.... it will lead Us to China.
Jul '10
Re: Obama: We're Digging Ourselves In Deeper
God, I'm glad he's back from vacation.
And it think it's a great idea for him to insert himself into the middle of the Super Bowl. What better way to contrast a quintessentially American, manly institution with an utterly alien, testosterone-challenged loser?
Jul '10
Re: Obama: We're Digging Ourselves In Deeper
So let me get this straight...
We're standing in a hole up to our shoulders, and the solution to get us out of the hole is to hand up more dirt?
Is that the logic?
Has anyone got a slurpie?
Dec '10
Re: Obama: We're Digging Ourselves In Deeper
You should recall that, last month (after the election) the Department of Interior announced new rules associated with leasing and exploratory drilling. This is how they will expand the time it takes for reviewing applications (first paragraph), by directing more of their reviewers time to operations in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico, where the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon event took place, in deepwater.
By doing that, Interior has ended any evaluation of resources in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. There's a lot of natural gas in that area and it is in comparatively shallow water (scroll down to second image). As a general rule shallow is easier and safer and natural gas drilling is "cleaner", but that whole Eastern area is now off limits, while "we" focus more scrutiny upon (and slow down) activities proposed further to the east. I wish I could believe these actions were being proposed solely for environmental and safety considerations, but I also wish Florida could eventually have access to natural gas well off the shore of its own coast, rather than having to pipe it in from Louisiana!
Sep '10
Re: Obama: We're Digging Ourselves In Deeper
First I think O’s oil drilling policy is wrong head. In fact I thought Bush’s policy was overly restrictive. Second I think with gas $2 higher the GOP should be raising hell. After the HC vote hearings on O’s response to the spill and his and Bush’s lax supervision followed by legislation should be next up. I think a policy of shallow-water drilling should be advocate. That said I cannot understand why Cooper insisted on writing, “This is exactly what President Obama aims to do.” It seems some writers believe that imputing sinister motives enhances their arguments. It has the opposite effect. Why the editors at NRO tolerate/encourage this I do not know. I do not think WFB would be pleased.