The American Spectator

Mike Showalter br> Austin, Texas /p>

The President is simply delivering the goods produced by the current Republican Party. This is now a party of people like Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Lincoln Chaffee, Sherwood Boehlert, Christopher Shays and Lindsay Graham. It is disgusting. It needs to be flushed.

p>There are two options for individualist Americans: One, we can vote third party, in which case we might as well not even bother going to the polls. Two, we can run some decent people in Republican primaries over the next few election cycles and throw out the garbage that’s been rotting up there since 1994. I favor option two. br> — Mark Stewart br> Jacksonville, Florida /p> p> Just go back and look at who was pushing all the regulations and laws against drilling, refineries and nuclear and you will find Democrats and RINO’s. The next time you fill up at the pump, say a BIG THANK YOU to an environmentalist and a RINO. br> — Elaine Kyle /p>

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Table 3-14, the cost of driving a car has changed a lot between 1975 and 2004. The cost of gas has gone from 33.4 percent of all costs in 1975 to 11.6 percent of all costs in 2004. Using an inflation calculator, it can be determined that the cost of gasoline now is far below the inflation-adjusted price of 6.5 cents per mile in 2004. If the 1975 costs of gas per mile were inflation adjusted, it would be 18 cents a mile to run your average car an average distance of 15,000 miles.

p>If President Bush is going to call a hearing in Congress, how about calling in the people who contribute to the fixed costs of automobile operation? Theses fixed costs are: insurance, licensing, registration, taxes, depreciation and financing. Please notice that the government has a hand in most of those activities. The escalation of fixed costs since 1975 is 6.06 percent per year. The background inflation rate during the same time was 4.56 percent. This means that the fixed costs in 2004 exceeded, by $2,215.50, the inflation adjusted costs that were experienced in 1975.