Gas: Taking A Page From Democrats’ Playbook
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Economy, Good DecisionsGas is getting up there. Way up there. And that has some leading Republicans abandoning their “free market” ideology in favor questioning why the gas companies’ profits are going through the roof at the same time prices are too. After all, shouldn’t they be feeling the pinch too?
From the Wash Post:
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) are preparing to send a letter to the president Monday asking him to direct the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to investigate alleged price gouging and instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to issue waivers that might make it easier for oil refiners to produce adequate gasoline supplies, Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said.Hastert and Frist’s letter comes amid charges by some consumer groups and Democrats that oil companies have manipulated refineries and oil inventories to drive up prices. Hastert also took aim at the rich pay package for Exxon Mobil Corp.’s retired chief executive, which he called “unconscionable.”
A Republican saying that a CEO’s salary package is “unconscionable”? Wow. Pardon me if I didn’t think I’d see the day when our current Republican leadership would utter those words. But hey, I’m certainly glad to see it. Capitalism is an amoral system and needs to be put in check every once in a while. This latest energy crisis, not to mention the looming one with Iran, demands higher scrutiny, more accountability and real answers. Otherwise, my guess is that $5 gas is right around the corner.
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 and is filed under Economy, Good Decisions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 23rd, 2006 at 2:41 am
And Dems are sounding more like Republikkons… RepubliKKON spending has been so high, even the liberals are offended by the large Government ideas of the so-called “Conservatives”. Fiscal responsibility? Go LEFT
April 23rd, 2006 at 3:16 am
Maybe Ralph Nader was right when he said that there was no difference between the two parties any more. I am cynical about this because Oil execs. have already testified in the Senate twice this year about collusion on gas prices and manipulation of supply, and to what avail? Just seems like election year pandering to show that Republicans DO care about consumers. It’s political theater, cuz why bite the hand that feeds you —(check oil company campaign contribtuons for Frist and Hastert)? To date almost no one has been successfully prosecuted for gouging.
April 23rd, 2006 at 9:15 am
I’m still not convinced that high gas prices are bad. But yeah, the whole simultaneous record profits smells rotten somehow.
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:29 am
I tried to post a comment with a bunch of information, but the spam filter snagged it.
So I put it over on the moderate voice entry that links here. I included a bunch of links to graphs and data showing the current status of oil and gas, but the bottom line is a shortage of gas. Why that is occurring is pretty simple: demand has exceeded supply.
April 23rd, 2006 at 2:17 pm
Nader right? If Gore had won in 2000 we still would have gone after Bid Laden and taken out the Taliban if that’s what we had to do to get to him. In fact we actually might have gotten him since we wouldn’t have had Rumsfeld in charge. But we would not be in Iraq right now. How different do the Democrats have to be to kill that idiotic meme?
April 23rd, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Methinks Hastert is playing politics as usual – Bill Maher went so far as to say that the Exxon guy should be the “Dem’s Willie Horton” this fall. And viscerally, if you were going to draw a cartoon of a kleptocrat, you could do worse…
April 24th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Yeah, it is nice to see Congress showing it cares about lowering prices at the pump, but their solution–a windfall profits tax–would only raise prices, since the oil companies will just pass that tax down to the American consumer. Can’t they come up with anything better than that?
April 24th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
I am also opposed to a windfall profits tax. I admit that it’s partially selfishly based — I just don’t want to pay any more. Yet my opposition is also based on logic…a WPT is just going to be ineffective. What will it do to solve our energy problems? Our energy problems are in my opinion a result of our ever-increasing demand. Prices go up when demand goes up. Prices go down when supply increases. We must either do something to decrease our demand or increase our supply if we are to have relief.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
I despise paying $3 per gallon now just like all of you do and therefore I have to oppose the WPT as well. I guarantee this tax will be passed down to the consumer they always are. Like “oliveewe” said . . . we either have to decrease demand or increase supply! That means we all have to take a hard look at our energy consumption and we need to get our leaders to find ways to open up supply. Even if it means we may need to open ANWR or the Gulf.
April 24th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
Why is it always us that make the sacrifices? Why can’t the government make a sacrifice and stop spending so much money on their pet projects in order to fund a comprehensive energy policy? The less we rely on Saudi Arabia and OPEC for our oil the sooner we’ll control our own fate.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Seems like Congress is coming up with ideas that are little more destructive than constructive. If we add taxes, we’re asking for higher prices when the cost gets passed to consumers. If we regulate prices, we are only going to interfere with the supply that we need. I’m thinking we should concentrate less on regulations/punishments for oil companies and start working on policy that lets them explore new sources and give us some more affordable product.
April 27th, 2006 at 6:16 am
I like Kim’s description of political theater–that’s exactly right…both sides of the aisle want to “protect” consumers and it’s too hard to talk about the real reasons gas is so expensive: the cost of crude and state and federal taxes (wouldn’t want to let THAT cat out of the bag!)