It seems that high gasoline prices were big news over two weeks ago. Some grumbling noises that were made by OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) were, of course, blamed for the price increase. Nobody likes paying high prices at the pump, so politcians moved to assuage the publics's anger (such as it was). That's not really news.
The solution suggested by most leftist talking heads is for the Bush administration to 'get tough' with these uppity OPEC nations. John Kerry said "we should be putting pressure on OPEC to raise the supply and not allow those countries to undermine the economies of the world." Wait a minute-- these are the same people who insist on every other day of the year that the United States should not throw its weight around, "exploit" other countries by buying cheap goods from them, or even use oil at all.
If hypocrisy was a felony, we'd be locking up a lot of leftist talking heads right about now.
I watched a report on the matter on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, which included the Kerry quote. Glowering at OPEC was not the only thing Kerry suggested, though. It was only his first point, out of three.
"Number two, we should stop momentarily filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, so the supply to the country is higher which brings price down." Nice try, Senator. That very same program segment informed me that a little over 100,000 barrels a day is going into the reserve, which is a mere 0.5 percent of the oil the US uses every day.
"And finally there are 300 separate jurisdictions about additives in gasoline across the country, that raises the price of gasoline. If we were to simplify those rules and regulations, which we could do, we could lower the price of gas in the United States of America." On this third point, Kerry is absolutely correct. Except, I suppose, that simplifying government crap is always easier said than done. It's been said before. Good idea, though.