Hoyer: Moderate Kratovil will win 1st District and work with party

Johnson -

Like a good little Krato'malley soldier you ignored my previous points...

The fact is that Harris has a short and long term action plan for energy prices. Short term - give people more money in their pockets and keep the economy on its feet this summer by suspending the gas tax until Labor Day. Long term - update our aging energy policy by including nuclear, hydrogen, wind, natural gas and the possibility of drilling inside ANWR. That is a plan that will lower prices at the pump, and help with national security. What do Kratovil and his liberal "connections" (Hoyer, Pelosi, O'Malley) in DC plan? Raise the gas tax. Sure fire way to cripple the economy. Good luck with that sale in the district. You liberal carpetbaggers like to come inside the district and tell us what you think we should do about the the economy and the environment. I say its back to PG County with you and your ilk.

HERE YOU GO. I'M NOT SHOUTING, JUST IN CAPS SO YOU DON'T MISS THE ANSWERS YOU SO CRAVE.

A) I didn't ask you to speculate on what _I_ think regarding the gas tax - I asked you if _YOU_ think Gas Taxes are too high. As it stands, I've long thought that gas taxes were too high (both federal and state);

NO, I DO NOT THINK GAS TAXES ARE TOO HIGH. I ENJOY THE ROADS ON WHICH I DRIVE, AND UNDERSTAND THAT THE TAXES I PAY WHEN I PULL UP AT THE PUMP ARE DESIGNATED TO MAINTAIN THOSE ROADS TO THE STANDARDS TO WHICH WE AMERICANS HAVE BECOME ACCUSTOMED. I ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT THE MONEY MUST COME FROM SOMEWHERE, AND THE MOST LOGICAL PLACE WOULD BE FROM THOSE USING THE ROADS. THE COSTS TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN ROADS CONTINUES TO SKYROCKET AS LABOR COSTS AND ASPHALT - A BYPRODUCT OF OIL - REACH NEW HIGHS SEEMINGLY EVERY DAY. MAYBE IN THE UTOPIAN WORLD YOU ENVISION YOU CAN GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, BUT IT SURE DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY HERE.

B) I didn't ask you to read Frank Kratovil's mind. I asked for your learned opinion, being an expert in Frank Kratovil's policies on energy (which I thought you were, since you're so well-versed in what's wrong with Andy Harris' stated platform on energy), on what Kratovil's positions on gas taxes might be.

I AM NEITHER A MIND READER NOR AN EXPERT OF KRATOVIL'S POLICIES. NOR AM I AN EXPERT ON HARRIS' POLICIES. I DID, HOWEVER, READ HIS PRESCRIPTION PLAN AND KNOW A BUNCH OF HOOEY WHEN I SEE IT. IF KRATOVIL HAS NOT ALREADY SAID WHAT HIS POSITIONS ARE I WOULD GUESS IT WILL COME UP AT SOME POINT OR ANOTHER, AND THEN YOU CAN GET AN ANSWER FROM HIM.

C) I also asked you why you think that gas taxes are at the right level, and what you would say if Kratovil suggested that gas taxes be raised.

RE-READ YOUR POST. YOU ASKED "do you think they're at the right level?", NOT WHY I THINK THEY ARE AT THE RIGHT LEVEL. AND IF KRATOVIL CALLED FOR GAS TAXES TO BE RAISED I WOULD WANT TO KNOW HIS RATIONALE BEFORE DECIDING WHETHER I COULD SUPPORT THAT REQUEST. IS IT TO HELP PAY FOR IRAQ? I'D BE AGAINST IT. IS IT TO IMPROVE SCHOOLS? I WOULD BE AGAINST THAT TOO, BECAUSE GAS TAXES HAVE TWO DEFINED PURPOSES - OUR ROADS AND MASS TRANSIT, AND I HATE WHEN POLITICIANS PUT ALL DOLLARS INTO A SINGLE BASKET (OR TROUGH) AND TRY AND PAY FOR THINGS WHEN FUNDS SHOULD BE DESIGNATED ELSEWHERE. ALSO KEEP IN MIND THAT AN INCREASE IN GAS TAXES MIGHT ACTUALLY RESULT IN A DECREASE IN GAS PRICES. YOU MIGHT HAVE LESS DEMAND AS PEOPLE USE THEIR CARS LESS AND COMMUTER TRAINS AND BUSES, AND THAT COULD LEAD TO A SUPPLY/DEMAND IMBALANCE THAT WOULD ACTUALLY WORK IN OUR FAVOR, RESULTING IN LOWER PRICES.

D) Incidentally, it's pure misdirection to try and minimize the impact of gas taxes by measuring them in percentage of overall price. Besides the fact that you ignore the half of the burden that is (in Maryland) the state portion of the gas tax, the fact is, in the end, that nearly 50 cents per gallon is nearly 50 cents per gallon. On a 16 gallon tank of gas, that's nearly $8.00!
If I fill up twice a week, we're talking just under $800 in gasoline taxes!

HOW ABOUT THIS? WE ELIMINATE ALL GASOLINE TAXES AND WE MAKE ALL OF THE STATE AND FEDERAL HIGHWAYS INTO TOLL ROADS. YOU WANT TO DRIVE ON I-95 OR THE BELTWAY, YOU PAY. YOU WANT TO GO TO OCEAN CITY ON US 50, YOU PAY. YOU WANT TO JUST GO TO CHESTERTOWN ON MD 213, YOU PAY. IF YOU CAN THINK OF ANOTHER WAY OF BUILDING AND MAINTAINING ROADS WITHOUT THERE BEING SOME SOURCE OF FUNDS ASSOCIATED WITH PAYING FOR IT, I AND ALL THE POLITICIANS ARE ALL EARS.

And JL, I know who to thank - The Democrats of the Congresses of 1956, 1982, 1990, and 1993, who, like the Democrats who control Congress today, have never met a tax increase they didn't like.

WHAT, DWIGHT AND GEORGE I AND RONNIE DIDN'T HAVE VETO POWER? AND EVEN IF THE VETO WOULD HAVE BEEN OVERRIDDEN, IT SURE WOULDN'T HAVE STOPPED COWBOY GEORGE II.

Clearly, a vote for Frank Kratovil is a vote for higher taxes.

YOU SHOULD GO SEE THE GOOD DOCTOR HARRIS FOR THOSE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD.

And by the way, in 1959 President Eisenhower (Republican) doubled the gas tax from 2 cents to 4 cents per gallon. There it sat until it more than doubled under Ronnie Reagan (Republican)(to 9 cents), and then it went up 5 cents - 57% - under GHWB (Republican), and then went up 4.3 cents - 30% - under Clinton (Democrat).

I just posted this in case you wanted to know whom to thank.

JL, tell us all, if you're against removing the taxes on a gallon of gas (temporarily or permanently), do you think they're at the right level? Do you think Frank Kratovil thinks they're at the right level? Are they too high? Are they too low?

Would you support Frank Kratovil if he decided that the federal gas taxes ought to be lowered? Or would you still think that it was a hare-brained gimmick? How much could he lower them without it being gimmickry?

If you think gas taxes are just right, why? What would you say if Frank Kratovil said, as his Democratic colleagues in Virginia have, that they ought to be raised? How much more is OK?

Johnson, thank you! Want to end high gas prices? END THE WAR IN IRAQ! The War in Iraq is the chief reason the dollar is so damn weak, and the weak dollar is one of the chief reasons gas prices are so damn high!

Politics aside, lets not over blow the significance of a freshmen member of the US House, just because they might be from our backyard. Both of these guys would wind up on the fifth floor of the Cannon Office Building, a veritable desert in the panoply of House office space, and more importantly, Congressional significance. They would be one vote amongst 435, a peep in a sea of peeps, some louder than others. So who would become the loudest peep quickest? Undeniably, Frank Kratovil.

Kratovil would be considered a rising star in Congress, a young, intelligent fellow who just happens to have healthy connections to the Majority Leader, not a bad gig if you can find it. Andy Harris, if elected, might be one of a few Republicans that actually won a close race, a member of a minority that is becoming more of a minority with every election.

The question becomes what can my Member of Congress do for the region, for the district? As a new member of a dwindling minority, Andy Harris won’t be able to accomplish much. His party will be out of Congress and out of the White House. Kratovil, however, will be well placed to eventually chair a Subcommittee and really accomplish some things for the District.

With his marginal impact in the House keenly felt, you can bet Andy Harris would have his eye on the Governor’s race, or a potential bout for a highly coveted Senate seat. Those are races Harris would inevitably lose, but that won’t keep him from throwing his hat in the ring. So Andy Harris gets the district nothing but an ambitious ideologue, while Frank Kratovil, an ambitious ideologue, could potentially have the power to help the district.

1) Environment - Actually, if you talk to some of the environmental activists from Queen Anne's County (which is the only place that Frank Kratovil has developed an environmental record), they'll tell you that his performance has been less than stellar. In a number of instances, he's sat on his hands and been less-than-vigorous in prosecuting environmental crimes. You say he understands the needs of the bay? Based on what? His rhetoric and promises? He's had opportunities to protect the Chesapeake Watershed directly, and has turned his back on it!

2) Gas Prices - Funny, at least one major Democrat used the gas tax moratorium as a possibility in her Presidential big, and I find it interesting that Frank Kratovil's Democrat colleagues down in Virginia want to exacerbate gas prices by RAISING gas taxes. But isn't it interesting that even when gas prices are REALLY hurting people, Democrats don't want to consider lowering them.

As for gasoline blends, clearly JL doesn't understand economies of scale. The cleaner/higher octane level of the blend is but one factor - the fact that one has to make dozens of different blends for a marketplace has a crippling impact on the ability to shift supplies to meet demand. Let's say you're making different blends of gas for 4 different cities: A, B, C, and D. You have 4 separate facilities making this gas, each producing output to meet demand for each city. But City B demands half as much gasoline as City D - you can't reset the facility with any ease to make up for D's demand or B's relative idleness. So prices shoot up for D's gasolines because of supply scarcities.

The answer is to cut those blends down so that B and D use the same blend, and B's plant can use that added productivity time to increase supply.

Increase supply, price drops. Basic economics.

As to petroleum supplies in the United States, your knowledge of such information is woefully inadequate. There are potentially 2 TRILLION barrels of oil shale oil in the United States, and billions of barrels of oil in the OCS and ANWR.

And if we don't go after the oil in the OCS, the Chinese and Indians will. Who would you rather have engaging in drilling in the OCS, even from a mere environmental standpoint? US Companies, who are bound by US Law?

Iraq - Funny how the Democrats want to give a date certain to the insurgents in Iraq as to when the US is going to leave. Andy Harris has military experience, Frank Kratovil has none. Who is better prepared to make a judgment as to such things?

Carpetbagging - You said it yourself - Frank Kratovil moved here for the "opportunity for more control" of a political office, more control than he would have had had he stayed in PG county. That's the very definition of opportunistic.

Andy Harris moved here from NY to go to Med School. He decided to stay. It is the height of partisan lunacy to compare the two.

Oh, and Wayne Gilchrest was from New Jersey, originally. And a number of his predecessors were not Eastern Shore natives (Rogers Morton, for instance).

Ability to Work Well With Others - Please explain just how Frank Kratovil, whom Steny Hoyer has known since he was a boy, will be anything but a useful tool of the Pelosi machine? Heath Shuler, who is the most conservative Democrat in the House, votes with Pelosi 80% of the time. You think Steny Hoyer will let Kratovil vote with the Democrats any less than that? Someone who votes with Nancy Pelosi better than 80% of the time is NOT a moderate.

As for whether or not Frank Kratovil is decent or honorable - are you now questioning Andy Harris' integrity??!! On what basis?

For me, I think the candidates are on the same, human-based threshold when it comes to their levels of integrity. OTH, I also know that elections have consequences, and I want someone making the trip to DC who is going to do what he can to not expand the power of government--whether it's reducing taxes (and ensuring that my taxes aren't going to be raised), reducing spending, freeing the shackles of government from around small business' ankles, etc.

And the anti-tax, anti-spending, pro-small business wing of the Republican Party is far from dying. God help the United States if it does.

I'm sorry..has Steny Hoyer even BEEN to the majority of the First Congressional District, let alone lived here and understand our issues?

The fact that Steny Hoyer is crowing the praises of Kratovil makes him more that suspect...of course the House Leader wants one more vote...then he can challenge Pelosi.