Again. The Obamanation announced it will release 30 million barrels of oil from the strategic reserves and has another 30 million barrels pledged by our energy partners. Two million barrels per day for a month. And they can do it again next month and the month after if prices don’t drop enough.
It is to “make up for Libyan oil,” administration officials say.
Bwahahahahahahahahah hah ha. And hah.
It’s not a hail Mary to jumpstart the economy.
It’s not to fill in the gaps in our oil supply. There is plenty of oil.
It’s not even to ease the summer driving season.
But it is to drive speculators out of the market. See, if the price at the pump drops for 90 days, the third quarter Cost of Living calculations look flat again.
At the beginning of June, I said the Obamanation would try to get gas prices down to $2.47/gallon for July, August, and September, the “window” for Social Security’s 2012 COLA calculations. Artificial Cost of Living Adjustments are a free tax on the back of American seniors and the gummint needs more money. Way to go, Mr. Obama.
I thought food and energy were taken out of COLA anyway? Or was that just the Consumer Price Index?
From ssa.gov: “The Social Security Act specifies a formula for determining each COLA. According to the formula, COLAs are based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). CPI-Ws are calculated on a monthly basis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“A COLA effective for December of the current year is equal to the percentage increase (if any) in the average CPI-W for the third quarter of the current year over the average for the third quarter of the last year in which a COLA became effective. If there is an increase, it must be rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent. If there is no increase, or if the rounded increase is zero, there is no COLA.”
The Senior Citizens Leagure reports that “the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) is limited to the spending patterns of younger working consumers and represents less than one-third of the total U.S population. Although used to determine Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs), it specifically EXCLUDES the spending experience of anyone whose primary source of income is from retirement pensions. Currently the CPI-W market basket contains such things as rent, some medical costs, food, gas and oil among other items. It also includes high tech consumer items such as computers, big screen televisions, cell phones, DVD players that tend to rapidly decrease in price as the technology improves. Seniors however, do not purchase high tech items as often as younger working consumers. Instead, older Americans spend a greater share of their incomes on items that are more rapidly increasing in price-like prescription drugs and health care. Thus senior advocates say the CPI-W tends to understate senior costs resulting in COLAs that are not keeping pace with senior costs.”
The BLS has surveyed the senior market basket since 1983 but those numbers are not reflected in the law.