Mike Gravel is a footnote; Ron Paul's solution would involve the implicit assumption that the people will do something as the government steps away from regulating it. Neither are relevant much to the issue at hand here.
The budget system of the USA does not need a complete overhaul as you suggest (well, at least this certainly doesn't follow from high oil prices). The budget itself, perhaps, but the system, flawed as it is, works well enough in theory to accommodate changes. The next Democratic presidency will likely be under massive pressure from the people and interest groups to undo the damage of the Bush presidency (see Bush EPA). This at the very least would warrant greater research into alternative fuels, more environment spending, and whatnot.
None of this will help much. Developing viable alternatives will take longer time than we really have. Gas will become quite expensive in the twilight of America's energy crisis, such is life, we will complain and deal with it. My apologies for speaking in such ambivalent generality, but I simply don't see too much remarkable to say about the issue - it is an issue, it will be addressed as public pressure dictates, it will cause problems, it will be solved.... slowly, and in patchwork. I suppose that's the American way.
Very well, yes I was exaggerating, at least I got something out of you, not like the others. That's the point.
Not entirely, but it does need reform, USA will surely continue to base it's economy on oil, and it will make the rest of the world follow into a bottomless pit, there can't be so much wastes, and Mike Gravel, far from all, is the one that has cut more wastes and actually allot of useless stuff. Of course he doesn't have a chance, hence why I mentioned his name, a lost cause. But it's good that people like him exist and fight for presidency, maybe it was because of that there's allot of *strong* candidates. I think Obama is leading expectations and popularity, from what I've heard and see, which is probably outdated. Although Hilary is there...their proposals don't seem to fix any of this economic or budget issues, or at least not as quick and efficient as everyone wants.
The oil won't stop now, unless something drastic happens. If you see how far it's been climbing since Hugo Chavez said this prophecy, and without any resolution or proposal to fix it, it's either going up, or economic power going down, and people won't take it going up forever. I'm glad EU saw this problem way earlier, I don't know if USA has will or time to make as much patches as EU, even then, we're all screwed.
It's not a crisis, it's happening, and it will lead allot of the current and future problems. Will they start wars for energy, and will it lead to a war for resources, or will we be all very compassionate human beings and share doing sacrifices? It's being predicted for long time, but will it start so soon?
