Why isn't the Democratic Party standing up for the truck drivers...?

[kentuck]

...and the working people at this time? We just had a caller, a truck driver, call into C-SPAN and clearly stated the problem that he and other truckers were having with the high price of gasoline. He owned his truck and trailer and he had a 300 gallon tank. At $3 per gallon, he said it cost him about $1.25 per mile to run his truck. He had no idea how, he said, that other truckers were making it at all? Something has to be done, he pleaded.

Democrats, these are the people we have to stand up for. Granted, you will not hear great outcries from these drivers because many of them are talk radio listeners and devout Republicans. But they are in dire straits. They suffer in silence with their ignorance at this time. But, we should stand up for them anyway.

[Toots]

1. Teamsters backed Bush* in 04

Why are they bitching? They got what they voted for..

[atreides1]

5. That may be true

But from what I understand, most independent truckers are exactly that, independent!

Besides, Teamsters member aren't only truck drivers.

[bleedingheart]

13. independents have to deal with the "competitive market"

and that means they have to compete with trucking companies and other independents ...and it sucks...

I can't say it is fair but my neighbor's son is a truck driver and he is lucky because he pays for gas on the company's credit card and is paid a fair salary. He is lucky.

However...he has to deal with an industry that is very competitive and he doesn't know from month to month if he will have a job.

[4bucksagallon]

6. Yes I agree.

If you listen to wingnut radio late at night many of the idiots calling to agree, with the lying SOB of a host, are truck drivers.

[CANDO]

26. Sorry to call you on it, Toots, but the Teamsters did not back Bush in '04

That has had to be pointed out I don't know how many times. Where everyone got that impression was the fact that the Teamsters met with and talked issues with the Bush campaign before doing the same with Kerry. They indeed backed Kerry. I'm a 17 year Teamster and had Teamsters for Kerry bumper stickers on my vehicles. You may also remember the Teamsters once had a reputation for backing Republicans for President in the sixties and seventies.... never made sense, but true.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

2. At least gays can't marry and women are put into their rightful place

And we're killing Muslims over there so we don't have to kill 'em here.

Let them eat cake...they are getting exactly what they voted for.

[slackmaster]

3. Looks to me like something is being done

Food prices are WAY up where I live.

[underpants]

4. I agree now is also the time to reach out to small business owners

The Republicans completely take them for granted and the Dems seem to have given up on them.

[rucky]

22. We can do that by offering HEALTHCARE

this is all we talk about in our small business groups. not just for our employees, but for ourselves. Every month, somebody's out pitching the group with an "affordable plan" that is somewhat useless.

We want universal healthcare like every other developed country in the world. The benefit for employers AND workers is worth every penny (that we can get by rolling back the Bushie tax cuts and removing the cap on Social Security).

[HereSince1628]

7. Does anyone have a comparison of fuel use for trains and trailer-trucks?

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. You could probably find info like that from the American Association of

Railroads website

http://www.aar.org/

Trains are NOT the answer, however. There will never be a railroad siding behind every store, gas station or shop that gets it's goods delivered by truck. Railroads are fine for moving trailers (Piggybacks) long distances ie; more than 1500 miles but it still needs a driver with a tractor to move it from the rail yard to the delivery point.

Railroads are not the answer. Lowering exorbitant taxes on Diesel fuel would be a good start.

[checkmate1947]

8. Price to pay

Most of the truck owner/operators that I know bought into that
tough talk, cowboy, bullcrap, that GWB and Dick (the prick)
Cheney put out and voted for them, now comes the time to pay
the fiddler, you got what you wanted, now stop asking why the
Democrats don't stand up for Owner/Operators, go back to who
you voted for in the first place, you asked for it, now you
have to pay for it  

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Precisely how would you propose they do so?

Fact: Petroleum is a limited resource.

Fact: Global petroleum production is at approximately 83-84 million barrels a day.

Fact: Global petroleum DEMAND is at approximately 82-83 million barrels a day.

Fact: The price of petroleum is set on world markets.

Fact: Whenever resource availability is at approximately the same level as demand, price is naturally going to increase.

Fact: The United States uses fully 25% (!) of the world's daily petroleum output (thanks to our stupidly designed and massively inefficient automobile-based trasnport system), while having 5% of the world's population .

Fact: No action that can be taken by the United States government, or by any political party, is going to significantly bring down the price of oil at any time in the foreseeable future (short of invading and occupying several oil-producing countries and denying their resources to other nations).

Given all of the preceding, what would 'standing up for the truck drivers' mean? Not making empty and impossible promises of lower oil prices. Vocational retraining, perhaps?

[kentuck]

10. First of all, save what is being used in Iraq for military purposes...

By getting the hell out.

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. Well, I'm in favour of withdrawal from Iraq...

but it won't do anything at all to affect oil prices. The amount used for military purposes is negligible when measured against the amount used for automobiles, trucks, buses, and commercial aviation in just ONE major US city (say, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, etc).

[kentuck]

12. I disagree...

If we were out of Iraq, other countries, including Iran, would increase output. I think it would make more than a 'negligible" difference.

[Spider Jerusalem]

14. No, they wouldn't, because they *can't*.

Not by enough to make a significant impact, anyway. The excess production capacity just isn't there. OPEC is producing at full capacity. Not even Saudi Arabia can increase their production by more than at most a few hundred thousand barrels a day. (Look again at the figures I gave for production capacity and demand...easily verified through a quick Google search, from many sources.)

Global demand for oil has increased by almost twenty MILLION barrels a DAY in the past ten years, which has eliminated all of the spare production capacity that WAS there to drive prices down; oil companies haven't been finding enough to replace what's being used, and most oil-producing provinces are up against the hard wall of physical constraints to output. This isn't going to change just because the political situation changes.

[kentuck]

15. "..a few hundred thousand barrels..."

would make a difference on the price. The long range problem is as you say.

[Spider Jerusalem]

17. Actually, it wouldn't...

because almost all of Saudi's excess capacity is in high-sulphur heavy oil that most refineries (especially in the US) can't process; the desirable light grades of crude are in increasingly short supply.

[mike923]

23. Are you trying to tell me Bush doens't set the price of gasoline?

bullshit

[Union Thug]

16. Wait until the "Free Trade Highway" opens for business.

"...'aint seen nothin' yet"

[Doremus]

18. The best lessons are those learned when we screw up.

While I can empathize with the truckers, I am reserving my sympathy for those who had this administration foisted on them against their will. Bush* voters need to suffer the consequences of their actions, otherwise they will repeatedly make the same mistakes.

As to the price of oil, anyone in *any* oil-dependent industry should be actively retraining for other occupations. Oil is only heading higher and many jobs will become as obsolete as blacksmithing and livery stables at the advent of the oil age.

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. Freight transportation is NEVER going to become obsolete

Not unless someone invents a Star Trek style food materializer thingamabob.

[Doremus]

25. No, it won't become entirely obsolete. As oil becomes more and more

expensive, trade will become regional. Long haul truckers and their semis will become less important to distribution as markets become localized. Fuel efficient railroads will compete with truckers for remaining national distribution needs.

If I were an independent trucker, I'd be thinking about trading in my rig for a box truck, or maybe training for employment in the burgeoning alternate energy industry.

[Radical Activist]

21. Because Party Leaders have sold out to big donors.

When you cater to big donors it changes your mission and goals. We seriously need to get away from that.

[iconoclastNYC]

24. If I were a trucker I'd be looking into making my own biodiesle

The economics would probably be very good if you are using that much fuel.