"Pumping from the southern oilfields to storage tanks at Basra was stopped today after threats made by Al-Sadr," the official told Reuters. "It will remain stopped until the threat is over."
Did you know that each $1-a-barrel increase in the price of oil is equivalent to a $3 billion tax on the US economy? The average price of Iraqi crude in January 2002 -- before war seemed inevitable -- was $17.70 a barrel. That means an increase of approximately $27.30 a barrel since that time, or an increase in costs to consumers of approximately $80 billion dollars a year.
Add in the cost of the war, and you're talking over $4,000 a household. That pretty much wipes out Bush's tax cut for everyone except the rich, doesn't it?
