Comment Text:
You have GOT TO IMPOSE LIMITS on those oil speculators. They are way out of control!!! They're not actually moving a product, they're just trading slips back and forth, causing the price of gas to up and up and up, to the point where I can't afford to do anything but go back and forth to work. And I can't even afford to do that anymore.
I've cut everything out of my budget that I possibly can, and have cut back on my food as much as possible. I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING LEFT TO CUT OUT OF MY BUDGET except to start cutting necessities like my health insurance and mortgage. And I know I am not the only person in this position. I certainly can't do any recreational driving, and a trip even to Cedar Point this summer is out, unless gas prices come back down to $2.25 - WHERE THEY BELONG. That is where prices started last fall, before all of this bull.
And I'm a bookkeeper, so I see the invoices come across my desk with added fuel surcharges, which means that the price of EVERYTHING is going up.
Sir, we every-day Americans are NOT STUPID. We caught the press releases six months ago that told us that the price of gas would go up to $4 - $5 by Memorial Day. And we knew that, unless someone on Wall Street had suddenly gotten the powers of legitimately beging able to foretell the future, which is highly unlikely, YOUR MINIONS ON WALL STREET HAVE BEEN MANIPULATING THE STOCK EXCHANGE, AND YOU, SIR, BY NOT IMPOSING ANY LIMITS ON THEIR WILD, IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR HAVE BEEN ALLOWING IT.
The county in which I live still has 9.9% unemployment. The city still has 10.2% unemployment. One manufacturer after another has left town. Anyone hoping to find a job that pays above minimum wage (try paying a mortgage and living on minimum wage!) has to drive 20 - 30 miles to find work. And personally, I still took a 25% pay cut, but at least I have a job. But thanks to the gas prices, that is all I am living for.
I can't afford to go out to dinner/lunch, to a movie (and we have a dollar theater in town!), have someone cut my hair, buy a magazine, or splurge on anything. Because of the price of gas, and the effect it has had on everything else that is a necessity, I eat, sleep, and go to work.
Congratulations. You've robbed me of the joy of life.
