Present oil problems reminiscent of old ones

To the editor:

The other day I read an amazing column in the paper about how the democrats have brought the country to the terrible state it is in.

I started having flashbacks after reading the article and went back in time. It was 1973, and the Arab countries started an oil embargo against the United States.

There was a terrible shortage of gas, and the price of food and gas skyrocketed. The Republicans and the oil companies stepped in to save the country.

They said that if the oil companies could drill for oil in Alaska, the nation would have plenty of oil. The oil companies hit oil and put in a pipeline to the Northeast cost of the US. Then they sold the oil overseas.

I went to another energy crisis in this country. This time, the vice president and President Bush told the American people that they would solve the problem.

The vice president met in secret with the oil companies and they later received billions of dollars in tax breaks. Nothing changed, and the records of that meeting were declared top secret by the executive privilege.

Now, I see a crisis in the present. The president tells the Arabs they must pump more oil to lower the price of gas.

At a meeting last week, the Arabs said they increase production to lower the price, but the speculators on Wall Street raise it. I used to vote straight Republican, but only Barack Obama can solve it.

Mike Lenihan