Even though petroleum companies are reporting record high profits, on March 29 the Senate voted to continue giving gas companies grants worth $2 billion.

The high price of gas at the pumps has put this country into a great economic recession and it is unconscionable that elected officials in Washington continue to do nothing about it.

When the minimum wage was $1 per hour, gas was 28.9 cents a gallon. That made gas 28.9 percent that of minimum wage in 1964. Now gas is approximately $4.05 per gallon and minimum wage is $7.50 an hour, which makes gas now 54 percent of minimum wage.

Gas should be only $2.16 per gallon with the current minimum wage.

The politicians are not listening to the people and the people can change that by refusing to re-elect any incumbent. And, if the newly elected don’t take the hint, then we reelect someone else who will listen to the people.

Randall Probert, Bethel