THE OUTRAGE – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  The cost of gas at the pump is skyrocketing, severely hurting our most vulnerable citizens.  And yet, we're sitting on a huge energy supply.  Incredibly, Obama gets away with this.  From the Washington Examiner:

President Obama is a polarizing politician, but his friends and critics seem to agree on one thing: He's a canny politician.

So if the president had the ability to bring down the nation's staggering gas prices, create new American jobs and decrease the country's reliance on foreign energy sources without spending a dime of taxpayer money, wouldn't you expect him to use it?

If you answered yes, chances are that you're not working in the Obama White House.

As Americans watch skyrocketing gasoline prices (up an average of nearly 80 cents a gallon from this time last year) frustrate their hopes for economic recovery, they should be outraged by a new report on America's energy resources from the Congressional Research Service.

The report shows that the United States is sitting on the largest batch of energy resources on the planet. In fact, these vital fuel sources add up to more than the resources of energy-rich Saudi Arabia, China and Canada combined.

At every turn, the report's pages reveal a plethora of untapped resources. We have enough oil to replace our imports from the Middle East for 50 years. We have enough domestic natural gas for about 100 years.

And we have enough recoverable coal to power the nation for at least two centuries. None of those statistics factor in the increased efficiencies that could allow future generations of Americans to do more with less of these copious fuel sources.

The problem, of course, is that the Obama administration and its allies throughout the Democratic Party and the alternative energy industry deride these existing resources as remnants of a crude industrial era.

Instead, they hasten us to a future powered by faddish innovations in technologies like solar and wind power. And they attempt to sweeten the pot by invoking the revolution in "green jobs" that will accompany this economic and environmental transformation.

Unfortunately, this revolution has not been forthcoming. Despite decades of government support and billions of dollars in wasted taxpayer money, alternative energy remains a boutique pipe dream.

COMMENT:  Every American should be outraged.  I would not be shocked to see five-dollar-a-gallon gasoline a year from now.  And we'll be told we must accept it because we have been bad people, driving cars that are too big, and we must reform our ways for the greater glory of Al Gore.

If alternative energy were immediately available, I might see some logic in this administration's kamikaze energy policy.  But it isn't. 

Oh, by the way, the president is expected to unveil some economic ideas this week, and will heroically demand that loopholes in the tax system be closed so the rich pay more.  Right on, The New York Times will say.  But soaring energy prices are a severe tax on the poor and middle class, much greater than any new tax that will be imposed on the affluent, and yet the left doesn't seem to care.  High energy prices are part of their punishment for America, for those peasants out there who don't understand. 

Last week, when confronting a citizen-questioner at a meeting who dared to complain about gasoline prices, Mr. Obama suggested that the gent trade in his car for something more efficient.  Even allies of the president were appalled at his arrogance.  Most Americans are not in a position to trade in a car.  The exchange strangely disappeared quickly from news reports, the better not to embarrass dear leader, who truly loves us and thinks about us all the time.

Sarah said it best:  "Drill baby, drill."  She was laughed at.  She'd be laughed at today if she said the same thing.  But she was right.

April 11, 2011