Time for Obama to step up to the plate

Gasoline prices across the country have really taken a hit in the unrest in Libya and Middle East. Gasoline prices are fastly reaching $4 a gallon and could reach $5 by the summer. California is already over $4 and could be hit even harder. In an effort to alleviate this mess, President Obama is being pushed to open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserves along the gulf coast. But this won't help because the prices aren't being truly affected by the crises in the Mid East and north Africa, it's because the oil companies are greedy and taking advantage of the situation. Only 3% of our countries oil comes from Libya and our main supplier, Saudi Arabia, isn't in a state of emergency right now. So while we're suffering from the worst recession since the Great Depression, oil companies are continuing to line their pockets and take advantage of a situation not affecting them. The president needs to go back to what he said during the 2008 campaign and bring out a penalty tax on the oil companies for the large profits their making. Not only will this help the consumer, but it can go towards the deficit. But we all know this won't happen because the House of Representatives is controled by the GOP, which is in Big Oil's pocket. They don't care about the people that elected them, only the large donor fat cats that gave them campaign money. It's just sickening.