Comment Text:
Dear Chairman Gensler:
Yesterday I had to fill my Mazda3's gas tank. I tried to hold off as long as possible, hoping gasoline prices would go down some. Prices had gone from $3.88 to $4.19 within a matter of minutes last week. Prices did go down a whole ten cents, so I had to bite the bullet and fill up at $4.09 a gallon so I could get back and forth to work for the rest of the week. My little 12 gallon tank cost over $45 to fill up!
I am recently divorced. I work very hard as a secretary to bring home $800 every two weeks after taxes. After I pay my house payment, property taxes, car payment, utility bills (gas, electric, sewer, water and trash), and insurance (home owners and car) I have $19 left after my first pay check of the month and $28 left after my second pay check. I have no credit cards, no cable, no phone and use internet from the library or work. As you can see, I am already behind the eight ball when it comes to my finances. I have no extras to cut from my budget and practically nothing left for food, medicines, incidentals, or gasoline.
Oil companies are profiting millions of dollars EVERY DAY! Yet they are charging about $4.09 for every single gallon of gasoline sold in America! People, unless they live in places that offer public transportation, HAVE to purchase gasoline in order to maintain employment. It is not right that oil companies can earn so much at the expense of people's livelihoods.
The government needs to step in and say “enough”. It is one thing for a company to make a profit, it is another to keep raising prices and raising prices until the American people have to choose between food and gasoline so that same company can make MILLIONS of dollars EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Unfortunately, it will never happen. For the government to step in and say “enough”, government officials would have to be willing to look the American people in the eyes and say “you matter”. That your futures matter. That your finances matter. That your employment matters. That it matters that you have to choose between driving to work and buying food. But, for that to happen, government officials would have to stand up to the oil companies. They would have to actually enforce regulations that have been on the books for months regarding oil speculations and trading. They would have to be willing to take the chance of not being backed by the oil companies in the next election. They would have to be willing to take the chance of not getting those campaign dollars. They would have to actually stand up for the American people instead of the big business. Is it too much to hope, “never say never”?
