The next time you're paying $4.00+ for  gallon of gas, you can thank our elected leaders for it. I want you to think of all the other Americans just like yourself; who is struggling just to make ends meet.

Exxon-Mobil, the world’s biggest and most profitable corporation, raked in a staggering $10.7 billion in profits during the first quarter of 2011, the company reported Thursday. The figure was a 69 percent increase over the same quarter last year, and the highest quarterly profit since 2008, the last time oil prices topped $100 a barrel.

The company’s total revenues hit $114 billion in the first quarter, making it likely that in 2011 it will break its 2008 record of $458 billion, and could become the first oil company to reach half a trillion dollars in revenue. Exxon-Mobil’s revenues exceed the Gross Domestic Product of all but 18 of the 194 countries listed by the World Bank.

The profit figure for Exxon-Mobil was only the most obscene of a flood of multi-billion-dollar earnings reports from the major oil companies. Shell’s profits rose 22 percent to $6.9 billion, while the profits of ConocoPhillips rose 44 percent to $3 billion.

One year after the Gulf oil disaster, BP posted a first-quarter profit of $7.1 billion, an increase of 17 percent. Occidental Petroleum saw its profits soar 46 percent to $1.55 billion in the first quarter, while Apache Corporation netted $1.1 billion, an increase of 51 percent.

Tens of millions of us have no alternative but to drive long distances to their jobs, given the size of the country and the absence of public transportation where we live. The additional money we must spend on gasoline is not available to provide other necessities for our families such as electricity, food, clothes or in some instances a home.

Tell President Obama and Congress to get off their padded butts from the oil execs and open the reserves in the U.S!! Do something to bring the gas prices down or we will on Election Day