[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 71 (Monday, May 11, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5325-S5326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES

  Mr. CRAPO. Madam President, in mid-June, I asked Idahoans to share 
with me how high energy prices are affecting their lives, and they 
responded by the hundreds. The stories, numbering well over 1,200, are 
heartbreaking and touching. While energy prices have dropped in recent 
weeks, the concerns expressed remain very relevant. To respect the 
efforts of those who took the opportunity to share their thoughts, I am 
submitting every e-mail sent to me through an address set up 
specifically for this purpose to the Congressional Record. This is not 
an issue that will be easily resolved, but it is one that deserves 
immediate and serious attention, and Idahoans deserve to be heard. 
Their stories not only detail their struggles to meet everyday 
expenses, but also have suggestions and recommendations as to what 
Congress can do now to tackle this problem and find solutions that last 
beyond today. I ask unanimous consent to have today's letters printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       My husband and I live in Grand View on a cowboy's wages 
     plus my disability. We were having a hard time just making it 
     because of my medical bills. Now, with the cost of fuel, I 
     have had to cut back on how many visits I make to doctors. It 
     is a huge drain on our budget just getting to Mountain Home 
     to buy the few groceries that we can afford, let alone go to 
     Boise every month. We have horses to feed so our hay costs 
     have more than doubled and the idea of just letting them 
     loose on the desert is abhorrent to us. There are lots of 
     people doing that because they cannot feed their animals 
     anymore.
       You know what is really sad? It is sad that all of these 
     prices are based upon what might happen. A hurricane might 
     hit the Gulf. I watch the stock market and wonder how they 
     sleep at night when most of the decisions are based upon what 
     might be or could happen. I understand paying more when there 
     is a shortage or cost is high but why is it that in July/Aug 
     we are being punished for what might happen in November? 
     Maybe these people need to spend a year living off a cowboy's 
     wage before they are allowed to make decisions that affect 
     people they have nothing in common with?
     Kim and Lisa.
                                  ____

       My husband and I are on fixed incomes and are having a very 
     hard time making ends meet. My husband is 69 years old and is 
     still having to work as I had to take a disability from my 
     job with [the local] school district. I have worked in the 
     special needs program for 22 of those years and have just 
     worn my body out. I am on Social Security, but with them 
     taking out almost $95 a month for medical which does not 
     cover vision or dental. I had to have a hip replaced besides 
     all the other things that are wrong. If they keep up trying 
     to take away or just quit having Social Security, what are we 
     supposed to do? I have tried to get my disability from PERSI 
     and they keep telling me if I can help my daughter with her 
     kids two weeks out of the month, then I should be able to 
     continue my job. I told them that there is quite a difference 
     in lifting a 20-pound child who can help you to helping lift 
     kids that weigh from 90 to 150 pounds and cannot help you. I 
     dropped my granddaughter when she was six months old on her 
     head because of my shoulders. I cannot afford to hurt a child 
     at school or one of the other aides and be sued.
       We do not have much as it is but we cannot start over again 
     trying to if someone sued us because they will not settle for 
     what the union would pay; they would want everything we 
     owned. Most of us are in this desperate kind of situation and 
     need the people back in Washington to understand that we do 
     not have a retirement system like they do and need to be able 
     to keep as much of what we have as we can. Please help us to 
     at least keep what we are getting, it is not great but it is 
     better than nothing which is what they seem to want for the 
     working people. God bless you in your efforts to help all of 
     us that are struggling and have worked all our lives to get 
     nothing much and have those who get it all want to take it 
     away from us. Thank you.
     Nancy.
                                  ____

       My view
       No thanks to all of the Oil Companies.
       1. The oil and housing speculators have impaired the 
     logical pricing soundness of gasoline and diesel oil, now 
     causing all wholesale and retail price of goods and services 
     to rise, offsetting this rising cost in the national economy 
     used in the economic activity through the business 
     establishments as energy in and for mobility.
       2. This mobility for the time and motion factor to create 
     productivity and profitability through transportation and 
     distribution in the gathering and production and supply 
     within the GNP.
       3. This use correlated to the employment of money capital 
     and mankind capital used in the profit and loss sheets to 
     generate business revenue through sales that maintains the 
     national economy, and provides the base for the ultimate 
     consumer for all of the desires and demands put upon it and 
     is the base for private side revenue.
       4. Private side revenue from money capital labor and 
     mankind labor to be taxed by direct and indirect taxes for 
     the revenue to maintain government for all desires and 
     demands put upon it.
       5. The government sector through the private sector depends 
     upon maximum investment, maximum employment, maximum income, 
     maximum spending thus maximum sales through all the profit 
     and loss sheets to generate maximum revenue for governments 
     operation to tax and for cost and expenses, profit, earnings 
     and income.
       6. [This will all combine to] destroy the United States of 
     America, [simply] by consuming the very thing that gives the 
     people the wherewithall by working the nation's capital to 
     produce a viable national economy to support the nation's 
     needs through business in the private sector and the 
     government sector.
       7. We the people have given you trillions of dollars in 
     money, subsidies, and [yet Congress has not acted to resolve 
     the problem].
       A. This has put the economy in disarray, and capital 
     through instability is not now productive enough to generate 
     economic activity through all of the profit and loss sheets, 
     to generate revenue to be taxed to [provide tax breaks for 
     oil companies], along with all of the government operations 
     (federal, city, county, states) for things the people cannot 
     afford individually, only collectively through tax revenue. 
     Then we also cannot afford for FEMA, the military, flood, 
     fire protection, police protection, education, weather, all 
     and any government agency to operate as they derive tax 
     revenue, due to the inefficacity, lack of productivity within 
     thru GNP through the economic system.
       B. The people are not addicted to fuel as energy (gasoline 
     and diesel); the people are dependent upon fuel (gasoline and 
     diesel) to maximize productivity through mobility of and in 
     the use of asset money as money capital and asset labor as 
     labor capital invested and risked within all of the profit 
     and loss sheets.
       C. Gasoline and diesel creating a more efficient source in 
     supply, manufacturing, and in use and consumption to maximize 
     productivity through mobility are separate sources of energy, 
     used in a completely different function within the GNP by the 
     economic system for the purpose of and function from wind 
     power, coal, oil for electrical power generators, yet 
     dependent upon mobility.
       D. The oil companies will destroy this nation's economic 
     system and the nation itself by their glut pricing for 
     profits as the use of oil in the economic system is for 
     mobility to create productivity for money capital, mankind 
     labor capital for revenue from sales to create and maximize 
     income and profits.
       E. The use of oil in plant and equipment and mobility for 
     production and supply are two separate entities but dependent 
     upon each other as sales always leads production.
       The national economy depends upon stability and 
     responsibility and is relative to geographical location, 
     environment, resources, man and money as capital invested in 
     the domestic economy. (One P&L sheet to generate taxes will 
     not pay government debt, it takes a collective million and 
     more through the GNP.)
       ``1929'' ``The Starvation, the silent factories, the goods 
     thrown away, the men standing idle, were the result of 
     irresponsible human financial and economic activities.''.
       ``The whole class of people living on investments with 
     fixed interest and annuities were pauperized and driven to 
     the most abject expedients to live, all scientific, literary 
     and educational activities endowments stopped. Officials, 
     teachers, professional men and such-like living on fixed 
     salaries or fixed fees were never able to increase stipends 
     in proportion to the rise in prices. There was in fact a 
     massacre of the poor educated.''
       A nation that cannot feed itself, maintain physical health 
     and mental health and strength through the labor of capital 
     and mankind for its survival of its people, maintain the 
     viability, continuity of the economic system through all of 
     the collective profit and loss sheets of Private enterprise 
     is at a great disadvantage in social and economic stability 
     in the international power field.
                                                     John, Emmett.
       [P.S.] Sales create revenue.
       The national economy is what pays the nation's way, its 
     government's way and debt through and by the people in the 
     private sector through the collective profit and loss sheets 
     of the Entrepreneurial interest. GNP is not a Perpetual 
     Motion Machine: one has to work in order to have work done: 
     thus motion.
       1. The GNP is what the people produce as durables, non 
     durables and service. (PRIME): The left-hand side is the 
     supply side WORK; (+y -x -y), dependent upon mobility for 
     productivity): This creating employment and income in the 
     process of production, producing the Economic Goods or 
     Service to satisfy human wants creating the demand object. 
     When you put people to work one automatically puts money to 
     work.
       2. The GNP: (PUMP) to buy, durables, non durables and 
     service, dependent upon mobility for productivity is the 
     right-hand side and is the consumption side WORK DONE; (+y +x 
     -y):
       3. The left side and right-hand side reciprocating within 
     the GNP through all of the collective Profit and Loss sheets 
     from the -X

[[Page S5326]]

     to +X time line through +Y (revenue earnings, income, direct 
     and indirect taxes) by -Y sales (cost, value, expenses) then 
     back to -X from +X.
                                  ____

       The price of fuel has been affecting my family 
     tremendously. I am currently enrolled in college classes and 
     I live about 30 miles from my school. I have to live here 
     because living in a college town means the price of the home 
     is considerably too high. I drive 60 miles a day, and spend 
     at least $60 a week on gas for my vehicle alone. I am married 
     and my spouse is in a carpenters' union. This requires he 
     drive to wherever the employment is. Please do something, 
     Congress. I have never had to reach my hand out for help 
     before. My family believes in taking care of ourselves, but 
     the food bank is becoming more and more of an option. I do 
     not have a solution, but something needs to be done. Thank 
     you for your time.
     Diane.
                                  ____

       Thank you for your newsletter regarding the energy problem 
     facing our nation. People are [frustrated with the inaction 
     from Congress], and those of us in Idaho recognize how much 
     harder this makes your work which is greatly appreciated.
       Regarding the impact of gasoline prices upon me: I am a 
     retired widow living on my Social Security income. As to my 
     driving habits, they have practically come to a standstill. 
     My car sits for days at a time, not driven due to the cost of 
     gasoline, driven only for necessities. My tracking of the 
     daily oil commodity prices does not paint a pretty picture.
       Then there [are politicians who do] not favor drilling in 
     ANWR or offshore. I agree with you that we must do all the 
     things possible to provide sufficient energy for our own use. 
     To think that Americans historically are known for 
     innovation, one ponders ``What has become of our ingenuity?'' 
     Is it politics as usual? Those more astute than I will figure 
     out how to handle the problem of drilling for oil, the 
     building of nuclear power facilities, the construction of 
     windmills, the development of biofuels, the use of oil shale. 
     The use of corn for ethanol is one of the crazier ideas put 
     forth. Anyone suggesting penalizing oil companies or 
     suggesting that they are making obscene profits needs to look 
     at the dollar amount of taxes put on gasoline. The lack of 
     understanding by some of business economics is sad. Stop 
     putting restrictions on energy companies so that they can 
     proceed without government red tape. Work with, not against, 
     companies to proceed post haste.
       There is no reason that America cannot move forward with 
     programs to make us energy self-sufficient. It is 
     embarrassing to read that France has nuclear power while we 
     are sitting on our hands. It is upsetting to read that 
     foreign countries have leases to drill for oil in the Gulf of 
     Mexico. It is maddening to hear people say we are becoming a 
     Third World nation. I am proud of my country but I am 
     disgusted with [partisan politics]. It would seem that 
     earmarks come ahead of doing what is right for our country.
       Needless to say, the energy problem has impacted our food 
     prices. This makes it hard for those of us on limited income. 
     Families with children should not be limited when it comes to 
     buying food for growing children.
       In closing, we are at the crossroads of history. By not 
     looking ahead in the past, we are suffering the consequences 
     now. Now is the time to do something besides talk. The 
     American public wants action now. Americans have spoken. Why 
     is not Congress listening?
     LaVergne, Hayden.
                                  ____

       I appreciate your desire to at least try to find answers to 
     this energy debacle. I am greatly concerned over the attitude 
     of our lawmakers and their passive attitude toward this vital 
     issue. There is a great feeling of uncertainty as to whether 
     we will be able to afford visiting families, harvesting 
     crops, and the myriad of other activities that are vital to 
     our livelihood. I believe environmentalism is accomplishing 
     what communism could not. It has brought our economy to its 
     knees. It is destroying our way of life, and most disturbing 
     it is denying us access to our own resources, which then 
     makes us hostages to foreign nations for our hand-to-mouth 
     existence. I fear the next step they will take will be the 
     nationalization of the oil industry as they try to make the 
     people feel they have the answers instead of letting private 
     enterprise and the free market, the very principle that has 
     made us great, have free reign. The American people have been 
     sold a socialistic bill of goods in the name of saving the 
     environment. They have been conditioned to think that man has 
     no place in nature, that their meat comes from a package and 
     their shoes from a box, with no realistic understanding of 
     the realities of production. These are very trying times. 
     Failure to properly address this issue could destroy our 
     status as the hope of nations and a light to all free 
     thinking people of the world.
     Dell, Idaho Falls.
                                  ____

       Over 63 years ago, Japan was using all electric cars/taxis/
     buses/street cars because they had no oil--duh!
     Unsigned.
                                  ____

       I am responding to your request for specific impacts the 
     cost of energy is having on individual families in Idaho. In 
     my view, targeting individuals is something like fiddling 
     while Rome is burning. As usual, [politicians do] not seem to 
     understand that inaction over the past 20 to 30 years in 
     regards to a realistic energy policy will at some point 
     destroy the country's way of life. Everything we have 
     achieved in the past 100 years is tied to energy in one way 
     or another. Farming, manufacturing, healthcare, 
     transportation, building, etc. could not have been achieved 
     without energy. [There has been a dramatic lack of leadership 
     in] addressing the energy problems. They, like you, are 
     focusing on how gas prices affect individuals while you 
     should be looking at how the energy situation could shut down 
     our whole economy. Our enemies have long ago determined that 
     they could not defeat us and destroy our country in a 
     traditional war, but they can destroy us from within. A few 
     hundred people acting as environmentalists have been able to 
     lock up our abundant natural resources. We have spent 
     hundreds of billions of dollars for oil purchased from some 
     of our most dangerous enemies, some who preach our death and 
     destruction. We have with our oil purchases enabled these 
     enemy countries to arm themselves and at some point in time 
     our young grandsons will probably need to stand up to the use 
     of these arms.
       No one says we do not want to protect the environment 
     because we can. The technology and proven performance is 
     being demonstrated all over the world. The Congress must 
     remove the road blocks to our own natural resources--now! 
     Atomic energy must be allowed to develop and be an integral 
     part of the solution. Some say we cannot drill our way out of 
     this mess, which should have been done 25 years ago. If the 
     road blocks were removed, oil prices would drop like a rock, 
     because the speculators would need to consider the eventual 
     increase and volume of marketable oil. There are so many 
     things that could be done, however based on the performance 
     of our government nothing will be done.
       [I do not believe our Congress will address this problem 
     effectively and that politicians will continue to profit from 
     this disaster for the American people.]
     Gary, Meridian.
                                  ____

       This fuel price is out of hand. I do think Congress needs 
     to step in and do something. I think we need to drill for oil 
     where they know it is. I am like another person who wrote in 
     and said that it should be up to the U.S. citizens. Let us 
     vote on whether we should be drilling in the U.S. and its 
     coastal waters. It should be our choice.
       My husband and I own a big rig and he hauls potatoes into 
     [a processing plant] in Nampa. He gets a fuel surcharge but 
     it does not come close to covering the amount that the fuel 
     has gone up. We are slowly going under. We own our rig and do 
     not have payments so I do not know how anyone could survive 
     with making payments. My husband hopes to retire in the next 
     couple of years and we do not even know if we can make it 
     until that time. Then when we do retire how are we going to 
     afford to do anything? We would like to do some traveling but 
     with fuel so high, we will not be able to do so.
       Our Senators and Representatives need to represent the 
     people!
     Mary.

                          ____________________