Bush Aides, in Shift, Say Oil a Drag on Economy

[cal04]

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites)'s economic advisers warned on) Sunday that high energy prices have become a drag on the U.S. economy and not a threat to growth, chipping away at Bush's upbeat election-year projections and increasing pressure on him to act.

Treasury Secretary John Snow warned on Friday that, "We're seeing some slowing in the United States directly attributable to high energy prices."

Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, went farther on Sunday, warning in a letter published in The New York Times: "High energy prices are now a drag on the economy, as well as a strain on family budgets."The warnings appeared to be part of a concerted shift in tone by Bush's top economic advisers, who for months have sought to minimize the risk of an economic slowdown in the run-up to the November presidential election.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=3&u=/nm/20040822/pl_nm/campaign_bush_oil_dc

[Flagius]

1. So the question is:

Are they turning on him, or is this some sort of election year ploy to somehow help Bush?

[clydefrand]

2. I think this means that Prince Bandar

and his clan will lower the crude oil prices significantly so that our gasoline prices will magically become somewhat lower. All of this to show us how wonderful the lying bastard Bush really is so he'll be elected by those people too damn stupid to realize he has hoodwinked them again.

[aquart]

12. Saudis haven't been able to fix it so far.

This isn't happening because of Saudi Oil. It's a perception of an unstable future.

George's gift.

[qwertyMike]

3. By Nov 2

Folks in the northern states OH, MI, etc., even parts of PA will have had their first home-heating oil bills in the mail methinks.
Hmmmmmmmm.........

[UpInArms]

17. I filled up my heating oil

(500 gallon) tank - last year we heated with 350 gallons - hopefully this will be a mild winter -

cost was $1.50 for #2 diesel - up from $1.16 in 2003.

[louis-t]

4. Another in a long line of

Repub excuses. 'It's not me screwing up the economy, it's oil".

[Yavin4]

5. It's Taxes, It's Clinton, It's 9/11, It's Interest Rates

Now, it's oil. They don't have any kind of economic plan. All they have is an excuse plan. It's excuse after excuse, after excuse. That's all that they have.

Hey, what happened to the 8 million jobs that they promised in 2003 during their last tax cut?

[Fovea]

6. For 20 years, the BFEE has been involved with

the Middle East. Up until recently, they have been true Saud partisans.
Dubya changed all that. PNAC has turned the Royal family against him. What was once friendship, is now gamesmanship.

As long as there is a Saudi Arabia, Bush will not succeed in using Iraq as an economic weapon against the Royal Family. He was stupid to even try (But that Dubya is stupid is a surprize to no one, even his Mom--Remember, Jeb was going to be prez first). Of course they say they are supporting Bush. But they knew that they couldn't, even if they actually *did* want to, an assertion I rather doubt is true.

[markses]

7. In shift...or FLIP FLOP?

:evilgrin:

[Strelnikov_]

8. I Am Afraid This Means The Economy Has Taken A Turn For The Worse

. . due to their bankrupt economic policies and this turn will become apparent before the election. They are building the groundwork for plausible deniability.

Talking points being prepped for October:
- The downturn in the economy is due to high oil prices. The administration has no control over these prices.
- The Democrat party has held up the energy bill, so they are responsible.

From the article:

"It has nothing to do with the election," an administration official said of the new warnings on energy prices. "It's a reaction to changes in the economy."

[Flagius]

10. good

Then they wont mind if Kerry uses his "Jawbone" comments against him.

[Radius]

9. Sources

Our Largest sources for import are Saudis, Canada, and Venezuela. Mexico could step in and replace Venezuela if necessary.

The Saudis are questionable as well as Venezuela under current leadership. Both profit from artificially high crude prices. The whole crude market smacks of Enron like speculation and manipulation.

Crude prices effect everything, every business has energy overhead. Raising oil prices will hurt the economy and cause inflation across a large segment of products and services.

http://api-ec.api.org/filelibrary/May03imp.pdf

[Jim__]

11. Obstructionists blocked our access to ANWR oil that what caused the

problem.

Kerry ought to be able to knock that out of the park. If the economy is going south; only BBV can save bush.

[PurityOfEssence]

13. But...but...they're Oil Executives

Aren't they the grownups? Surely it can't be that they're incompetent. It must be those damned Democrats, even though the reactionaries control both houses of congress, the executive and the courts...

It can't be torpedoing of alternative energy sources, and it can't be screwing the CAFE standards; now it's just one of those vicissitudes of an unfriendly world (even though Jesus loves Junior) that nobody could have seen coming from a finite source of power.

Junior thinks he's god: all good flows from him, and all screw-ups and assorted badness isn't his fault.

Much as the emotional issues are so strong, these fucks should be derided and defeated on the cold reality of their shocking incompetence.

[legin]

14. Checking back to 2000

It appears that Clinton gave 2 weeks notice to the public prior to opening the reserve for a month.

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0009/23/cst.07.html

So if the 45 day opening of the reserve option happens then expect an announcement within a week or two, otherwise it's the middle of September for the 1 month opening option.

[CookieD]

15. In other words, we have turned the corner ...

But our Humvee has run out of gas.

[hang a left]

16. I read somewhere here the other day....

About oil prices dropping and helping *. So lets say if they go from 50$ to $40 a barrel before November it will give everyone a hard on.