February 22, 2012
IT'S NOT THE PRICE, IT'S THE PROFITEER:
Aren't High Gas Prices What Democrats Want? (David Harsanyi, 2/22/12, RCP)
So why aren't Democrats making the case that the spike in prices is a good thing? Isn't this basically our energy policy these days? How we "win the future"? If high energy prices were to damage President Barack Obama's re-election prospects, it would be ironic, considering the left has been telling us to set aside our "dependency" -- or, as our most recent Republican president put it, "addiction" -- for a long time.If Democrats had their way, after all, we would be enjoying the economic results of cap-and-trade policy these days -- a program designed to increase the cost of energy by creating false demand in a fabricated market. As the theory goes, if you inflate the price of fossil fuels, the barbarians might finally start putting thought into how peat moss might be able to power a toaster.
While the higher prices are good--though they need to be much higher to effect change--the profits ought to be going to the Treasury, as part of a considered public policy, not to speculators feeding off transient hysterias.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 22, 2012 7:02 AM
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