Anyone out there know the significance of August 4, 1977?   No?  It's a pretty significant date, after all.  One that has had a profound effect on every aspect of your lives; whether or not you were even alive on that date or not.  August 4, 1977, was the very date that former President Jimmy Carter signed into law the bill creating the Department of Energy, the purpose of which was to "Lessen our dependence on foreign oil!!!!"  Billions of dollars later, how do you think they're doing?  At that time, we imported about 50% of our petroleum needs.  Today, that figure is fast approaching 80%.  Thirty-one years later, the Department of Energy has an annual budget of $24.2 BILLION, 16,000 full-time employees and over 100,000 "contract" employees, yet instead of REDUCING our reliance on foreign oil, that dependence has INCREASED BY almost 30%! 

 

What's even scarier, these are the same people that many Americans think should be running our healthcare, pharmaceutical, banking and even automobile manufacturing businesses! 

 

"Well, at $.65 per gallon, demand just went out of sight and the DoE couldn't control THAT."  Nonsense!  Oil was selling at about $10 per barrel by 1984, and gasoline was $1.35/gallon at the pump and we were importing 60% of our needs by then because the feds and various States decided to raise the TAX on gas at the pump!  SOME "energy policy" these federal bureacrats came up with, huh?

 

Today, you and I are paying almost $25 BILLION annually to perpetuate a bureaucracy that has utterly FAILED in its original mandate and the Dimocrats are actually considering putting Henry Waxman, of all people, in charge of the House Energy and Commerce Committee...a man who HATES the petroleum industry and isn't all that fond of capitalist commerce either, for that matter! 

 

This is just another example of how the liberals in the federal government are given to growing the bureaucracy whenever possible and then perpetuating it even if it CAN'T DO THE JOB FOR WHICH IT WAS CREATED, because doing away with it would involve REDUCING the size of government and therefore, their control over every aspect of our lives. 

 

Wake the hell up, Sheeple!  While your backs have been turned, distracted by re-runs of "Dancing With The Stars" and anticipating with bated breath the resumption of "Lost" next January, those who are SERIOUS about changing us into a socialist nation have been picking our pockets.

 

Remember, the original purpose of the Department of Energy was to REDUCE our dependence on foreign oil.  How's it working out SO far???