Rusted Sky

From the Wall Street Journal...

Anyone wondering why U.S. energy policy is so dysfunctional need only review Congress's recent antics. Members have debated ideas ranging from suing OPEC to the Senate's carbon tax-and-regulation monstrosity, to a windfall profits tax on oil companies, to new punishments for "price gouging" – everything except expanding domestic energy supplies.

Amid $135 oil, it ought to be an easy, bipartisan victory to lift the political restrictions on energy exploration and production. Record-high fuel costs are hitting consumers and business like a huge tax increase. Yet the U.S. remains one of the only countries in the world that chooses as a matter of policy to lock up its natural resources. The Chinese think we're insane and self-destructive, while the Saudis laugh all the way to the bank.

And from the Cordele Dispatch, in Cordele, GA.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code. Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy. Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I've written before that the Democrats will NOT solve a problem that can be used to garner votes. The problems we're having with energy are an excellent example. Supply and demand is a simple concept - but you see the Democrats doing everything they can to NOT address the problem. How does sueing OPEC or taxing oil companies more do anything to alleviate $135/bbl oil? At best, it's political posturing - at worst, rank stupidity.

Congress, like it or not, has become a defacto autocratic aristocracy. They have little responsibility to their constituents, and face little danger of losing their positions even when they go essentially insane in office (See Cynthia McKinney) or commit crimes that would have you and I in the lockup in short order. The voter will reflexively pull the lever for the incumbent - because most just don't pay any attention.

But the thing that really ticks me off? You would think, after being slapped in the face with $4 gas, that the DEMOCRATS, of all people, would be falling all over themselves to buy votes with a rational solution involving fast-tracking refinery upgrades and additional drilling.

But they aren't.

Admittedly, when you're a Congress-critter, you're essentially insulated from the world. The price of oil matters less to you than where you're going to eat lunch. Why should they be concerned? It's all posturing and attempting to look 'essential' and 'relevant' and 'effective' - which is why you see the garbage that they're trying to pass re energy.

The solution? Write. Call. Tell them what you want. Sure - they'll ignore it, but YOU will remember come election day that the so-and-so in office never replied and didn't do a single effective thing about the issues you're concerned about.

And then you'll vote accordingly.

J.