Kill Them With Facts

Random tidbits from a few weeks sleuthing....

ONE:
Sarah Palin, in her Charlie Gibson interview, proposed drilling for oil in the ANWR nature reserve. She claimed that oil reserves occupy only 2,000 sq mi of a 20,000 sq mi habitat. This is correct. But the implication is that drilling for oil in Alaska will produce enough fuel to ease American dependence on foreign oil. This is false. The US consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. 12 million barrels a day come from imports. The federal government's own estimates state that ANWR drilling would not reach peak production until 2025, and then the most it could provide would be 80 thousand barrels a day. That equates to %.04 of US daily oil consumption.

It is simple fact that oil reserves on this planet will one day run out. The Palin/McCain ticket is outright in favor of squeezing the last drops of black gold from the earth, consequences be damned, over developing sustainable energy to deal with the inevitable.

TWO:
US spending on health care in 2007 reached $2.3 trillion. That's %16 of GDP. Barack Obama's health care proposal has estimated costs of $50 to $65 billion per year. The Fed bailout of Bear Sterns in May cost $29 billion. The seizing of IndyMac bank cost $8.9 billion. The takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has a $100 billion price tag. AIG's rescue cost $85 billion. The newest proposal by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asks for $700 billion.

That adds up to just under $840 billion.

It's more illustrative to write it out: 840,000,000,000

Many, many people claim universal health care would be too expensive. In 6 months the Treasury has propped up Wall St with 12 times more capital than the Obama health care plan would cost for one year.

The priorities of the federal government could not be clearer.