Jon S. Corzine: “first of all, let me go back and compliment my colleague from Oregon, who I think has analyzed a problem that fits into…”

“first of all, let me go back and compliment my colleague from Oregon, who I think has analyzed a problem that fits into a pattern of economic pressure that we see building on the middle class in America. There is nothing more fundamental today in life than filling the car with gasoline and using it for commuting and taking the kids to school and doing all the normal tasks that we have going on. We see the same problem, by the way, with health care costs, tuition costs, and with property taxes across this country. While there may be some good economic statistics out there, middle-class Americans are being hit unbelievably hard on the fundamentals that drive their basic budgets. Nothing--nothing--more clearly demonstrates this than these rising gasoline prices we have been experiencing this year. There has been a 23-cent increase in the price of gasoline. Nationally, the average price for gasoline is $1.84 a gallon. Many places in the country it is over $2 a gallon. This comes from flawed simple economics 101, supply and demand. This administration is doing everything that you can imagine to hold back supply by filling the petroleum reserve at accelerated rates, when it is already about 95 percent full.”