“Leaded or unleaded,” I asked the driver pulling into dad’s gas station. “Three bucks of leaded,” he said, through a rolled down window. “Want me to check under the hood,” I hollered, willing to see if the oil was low. “No need,” was the reply. Gas was cheap, stations provided full service, and minimum wage was over $2 an hour.
When leaded got outlawed, many drivers requested the additive to pour into the tank along with newer gas. Those drivers routinely grumbled about how the government didn’t understand cylinders. I shrugged my shoulders, showing my age.
I filled up in Kalispell last week at a little over $3 a gallon. Seemed cheap, and damn expensive but less than recent times. Two bucks seems fairer, I mused, grateful to fill up and drive on. I worked the gas-shortage years when rigs with odd or even license plates could only fill up on select days. Those pump lines were longer than at Costco today.
Today, America pumps more crude from public lands than at any time in our history. During each of the last few years, the U.S. pumped more oil out of the ground than either Russia or Saudi Arabia.
Last week, the Fox Business reporter said that the Dow stock market index closed with its 31st record-high of the year and the S&P 500 index closed with its 41st record-high of the year. Clearly someone is making good money.
The upcoming election is about kitchen table issues like housing, schools, public lands, and healthcare. With your help, Jon Tester stands a good chance at re-election. I recently told an East Coast newspaper that Tester wins by half to full point, a familiarly slim margin with next morning results.
Tester brought home more jobs to Montana than any recent politician through his bipartisan, middle-of-the-road approach to people and governing. His moderate politics produced a lot of local jobs, an estimated 800,000 nationwide. Tester secured $3 billion for Montana roads and bridges, nearly a $1 billion for rural broadband internet, and million more for local computer chip manufacturing.
Those federal dollars paid for that new water tower in Kalispell, the local airport upgrades, and much of the public infrastructure being built to keep pace with the growth of our ever-increasing community.
The Flathead remains one of the fastest growing places in America. Tester is good at public infrastructure. Locals deserve Tester’s experience in D.C. through this decade.
Heck, I laughed, I’m still grateful to him for securing federal funds to conserve thousands of acres of private forest lands in the Haskill Basin watershed, preserved forever back in the day.
Tester, that farmer turned public servant, delivers for locals, shows up when Montanans need help. Yet Tester also manages to grow dryland grains on their 100-year-old farmstead. The land keeps him grounded, Tester says. I get that, D.C. sounds like hell.
None of the other guys, whom Montana sent to D.C. to work for us, voted for the dollars that came into this state to provide jobs, fund healthcare, schools, state budget surpluses and homeowner property tax rebates.
Last week, Tester was in Kalispell pushing his bipartisan bill to make homeownership more affordable to locals. Over the last few years, Montana became the least affordable place to live in the nation.
Helena politicians messed things up fast, I thought. We’re building as fast as anywhere America, but homes keep getting more expensive, further out of reach of local wage earners. We need affordability to local living.
“But this bill isn’t just about enabling more Montanans to buy a home. It’s also about keeping lifelong Montanans in their communities and supporting the hard-working folks that power our schools, our hospitals, our law enforcement agencies, our small businesses and so much more,” Tester said, “Look, we all know the rich out of staters are buying up land and houses, but we got to make sure that Montanans can afford to live here and afford to stay here.”
We deserve a workhorse like Jon Tester fighting for the rest of us. Tester is about as Montana as one gets. He understands rural, gets community, likes public schools and infrastructure like hospitals.
Voting has begun across America and ballots arrive soon in Montana. Cast a vote for your future, opportunity for kids. Big money hires plenty of lobbyists and lawyers. Their interests are well represented in D.C.
Tester will stand up to protect your individual freedoms, make living less expensive, and keep our public lands open. If you don’t want to spend the upcoming winter fighting national abortion bans in Congress, you’d better vote for Tester this election.
Tester remains the only Montanan in Congress protecting your freedom to choose when, and if, and how to have children. No one wants more shady politicians poking their noses in your doctor office visits. Enough already.
Fifty years ago, the Clean Air Act mandated a reduction in pollution. That’s when catalytic converters became popular in cars. Lead clogged the anti-pollution contraptions so that gas was phased out worldwide nearly 100 years after introduction.
Today not even hardheaded gearheads think leaded gas is good. I cautioned myself, hoping the government wouldn’t take away ethanol-free gas for lawn tools or dyed-diesel for farm tractors.