Bill Nelson: “Why, then, other than what we have already talked about--the tightness of the world's oil market--why, in just the last…”

“Why, then, other than what we have already talked about--the tightness of the world's oil market--why, in just the last couple of months, has it spiked from $3 a gallon to over $4 a gallon? Why, in Madison, FL, a rural part of Florida, 2 days ago, was regular gas at $4.10? Part of that reason, of course, is what we have talked about, the world tightness. Part of it is that the United States relies on oil from foreign shores for 60 percent of its daily consumption of oil from places such as the Persian Gulf and Nigeria and Venezuela--the Persian Gulf, roughly 20 percent of our oil supply; Nigeria, 12 percent of our daily supply; Venezuela, 14 percent of our daily supply. I have just mentioned three very unstable parts of the world. That is part of the skittishness of this world oil market. But there have to be additional reasons. How about the weakness of the dollar? You know what we could do about that? Here is a solution. We could start bringing our budget back into balance instead of going out where spending is here but revenues are only here and the difference each year we have to borrow.”