Back Talk

The provocation is the price of gas that has set the country spinning on its axis. When the public becomes unhappy, all politicians feel obliged to do something, anything, to make the public think they are responsive to their needs, since a politician’s only real goal in life is to keep his cushy, lucrative, prestigious job. So, in response to the gas crisis, the DemPols dug into their playbook and came up with standard plays: first, they shift the blame away from themselves since they are responsible for the high gas prices. They sold out to the enviro-wacko lobby years ago, starting with Bill Clinton’s veto of the congressional bill to recover our own oil from ANWAR. They have blocked any oil drilling off our coasts or in ANWAR, and prevented construction of any new refineries in the last 30 years. They need a strong case here because anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of supply and demand knows that a growing demand coupled with a fixed supply causes the price to increase. In addition to squelching any of our own development, the DemPols have made us hostages of Middle East dictators who can shut down our oil supply at will. They take the easiest scapegoat and blame the oil companies, invite a few oil execs in for hearings, rake them over the coals for a few hours, and make a show for TV. They claim the oil companies make excessive profits, even though those companies make 4% profit on a gallon of gas and the government makes approximately 15%. They mislead the public into thinking American Oil companies control the world oil and gas market when, in fact, they only control 7% of it. For their final act, the DemPols invariably make the situation worse by taking some action or passing some bureaucratic bill that costs the taxpayer and has bad unintended consequences. In this case, they announced they are going to punish the oil companies by levying some special taxes upon them. This action is pure crowd-pleasing duplicity and particularly dishonest because they must know that it will result in even higher gas prices. Like all businesses, oil companies treat taxes as a business expense and pass it on to the public. As is always, always, always the case, the problem with expensive oil and gas is not big oil, it is big government.