"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
This piece really tickles my fancy:

Chavez offers cheap gas to poor in U.S.

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, popular with
the poor at home, offered on Tuesday to help needy Americans with cheap
supplies of gasoline.

"We want to sell gasoline and heating fuel directly to poor communities in
the United States," the populist leader told reporters at the end of a
visit to Communist-run Cuba.

Chavez did not say how Venezuela would go about providing gasoline to poor
communities. Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA owns Citgo, which has
14,000 gas stations in the United States.

The offer may sound attractive to Americans feeling pinched by soaring
prices at the pump but not to the U.S. government, which sees Chavez as a
left-wing troublemaker in Latin America.

Gasoline is cheaper than mineral water in oil-producing Venezuela, where
consumers can fill their tanks for less than $2. Average gas prices have
risen to $2.61 a gallon in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration.

***Chavez said Venezuela could supply gasoline to Americans at half the
price they now pay if intermediaries who "speculated ... and exploited
consumers" were cut out.***

Venezuela supplies Cuba with generously financed oil and plans to help
Caribbean nations foot their oil bills.

Chavez, in Cuba to attend the graduation of Cuban-trained doctors from 28
countries, was seen off at the airport by Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Washington has accused the two leaders of being a destabilizing influence
in South America.

Chavez and Castro offered to give poor Americans free health care and
train doctors free of charge.



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Cheap gas from Venezuela. cheap prescriptions from Canada, free health
care from Cuba...

Yeah, we're sure doing well under the Bush misAdministraiton.

You never heard of the economic concept of "comparative advantages"?

For some time now (and long before Bush took office), health care has been
cheaper in Cuba, prescriptions have been cheaper in Canada, and gas has been
cheaper in Venezuela. You decepetively imply that this is a "new" thing
that has only occurred in the last 5 years.

Nice try.