This administration has failed the shrinking middle class and the poor miserably. In health care, prescription drugs, the environment – I can go on.

In the short time President Bush and his oil cronies have been in power, gas, heating oil and propane prices have soared.

It is obscene when oil companies are bragging about the record profits and we get screwed in the pocketbook.

Yes, Hurricane Katrina hurt a lot, but in mid-summer they were predicting more than $3 a gallon by September. With the Bush trickle-down mentality, the only thing that has trickled down is higher prices across the board – from food to fuel.

I know the economists throw out their “when you adjust for inflation” mantra that gas is cheap and the economy is strong. Tell that to the folks who make $6 an hour.

How about adjusting a pay scale for rising costs like politicians get? How about a wage all people can live on?

If oil goes for $3 a gallon it will cost $825 to fill a 275-gallon tank. Who can afford this?

Bush has forgotten the middle class and the needy; his policies have pushed more into poverty while giving the rich big tax breaks.

Sharon Sturm

Hancock