Tuesday, April 25, 2006

 

Standard Operating Procedure

Is it my feverishly paranoid imagination or do Bush's proposals really do nothing to actually help increase the supply of oil and/or keep the cost down?

If I really wanted to increase the supply of oil, I would certainly not first think of ending subsidies for trying to find the stuff (however ineffective those subsidies might be -- they might still be doing something). On the other hand, taxing and hence discouraging windfall profits (a.k.a., back in the day when a person could become President [Truman] for investigating such things rather than being labeled as un-American, profiteering -- this is, as Bush & CO like to remind us whenever they try to make an end-run around the Constitution, a time of "war"), sounds like it might be a good idea.

Certainly, I believe that Bush is as dedicated to rooting out price-gougers as he was to rooting out leakers in his administration. Since he's not fired himself (nor hired any plumbers ... hehehe), I suspect neither is he really going to go all Harry Truman on price-gougers.

Comments:
Bush (and most conservatives) are still operating from a false premise; that there is a supply-side solution to the oil problem. Of course, the talk on Faux News (it's all they allow us at lunch here) is that taxation is the problem, of course. Some harpy on Cavuto's show was practically in tears at the unfairness that government taxes gasoline so much.

The U.S. missed the boat on oil prices a long time ago. We could have made the necessary demand-side adjustments to our economy and our lifestyle. It'd have caused a little pain and probably taken some of the shine off of the 90's economic boom. But, boy, it would've been worth it.

Just for political spite though, it is kind of fun watching President Arbusto twist in the wind over gas prices. Every picture of him holding hands with Bandar bin Sultan is just another nail in the coffin for Republicans on this issue. They know who owns them and their owners don't want low gas prices.
 
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