Monday, June 9, 2008
Jimmy Carter with a Tan
Obama has decided to kick off his campaign by re-introducing the wildly successful economic policies of Jimmy Carter. You remember the 21% interest rates, 14% inflation, 12% unemployment that Jimbo brought us, the man who invented stagflation. So naturally he is a role model for Obama, who wants to try again with the windfall profits tax, the tax that lead to declining oil production, gas shortages, and rising prices. To Obama, it just seems logical that the way to reduce gas prices is to raise taxes on oil companies and increase the cost of producing gasoline. The idea of increasing the supply of oil by drilling in areas that the democrats have put off limits (that would be any area where oil can actually be found!) is just plain silly. No, raise taxes. That should fix things. If Obama wants to bring back stupid ideas from the 70's, he should stick to disco.
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2 comments:
Agreed! Punitive taxes are rarely effective, but the suggestion often plays well in an election year.
OTOH, the oil cartels should be taken to task for anti-trust and other market manipulations such as funding anti-nuclear campaigns and manipulating prices by controlling supply (through refineries).
So here's an idea you won't like: given the strategic importance of oil to our defense and economy, perhaps we should build some *national* refineries which would limit the ability of private oil companies to manipulate gasoline prices by limiting supply.
Because energy is so critical to the country, it should also be better planned and regulated...it is inexcusable that the French have bettered us on energy issues. We should have been building nuclear plants for the last 30 years. The French derive 76% of their energy needs from nuclear power and much of the rest is from renewable sources...they are net exporters of electricity...if they can do it why can't we?
I think if we simply get rid of a lot of the red tape that blocks the building of refineries, and the idiotic multi-formulations required (different blends for California, Chicago, etc. I think there are 11 in all!) that private industry will meet the demand. Don't blame the oil co's for utilizing 'useful idiots' as Lenin would say, blame the idiots. Today's environmentalists give environmentalism a bad name.
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