Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Better Late Than...Nevermind

Our valiant Senator Cantdowell continues her war on those mean, nasty oil companies.

In a hilarious piece of political grandstanding aimed at eastern Washington voters, Cantdowell has asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the "significant gas and diesel price disparities between eastern and western Washington."

Unfortunately for Cantdowell, crude oil prices have fallen below $65 a barrel, slipping more than 17 percent in the past month. The average price of gas in Washington is down 18 cents in the last couple of weeks.

Oil prices have fallen from $78.40 in mid-July to $64.85 today. Analysts predict oil could be down to $40 a barrel by the end of the year, with gas prices dropping to levels not seen in several years, perhaps as low as $1.15 a gallon.

Predictably, the moonbats think the Republcians are behind it all, somehow lowering gas prices as an election ploy.

The Rats are never happy unless everyone else is miserable.

1 comment:

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

I say we just flip their own rants against the oil companies. If the price rise over the summer was due to corporate greed, shouldn't the fall in prices be explained by a sudden outburst of corporate altruism?

But of course, it could never be that. The Leftist Lexicon prevents the terms "corporation" and "altruism" from appearing together - they take it to be a logical impossibility.

Therefore, the only explanation for the fall in prices is greedy consumers!

We stingy consumers have stopped buying so much fuel, citing higher prices that we do not wish to pay. As a result, oil company profits are now being harmed, which will affect millions of oil company employees. And we do this to them right as we head into the holiday season!

The answer to this problem is clear: we must institute a windfall savings tax against consumers who are purposelly using less gasoline. If all of these greedy, heartless consumers won't live up to their social duties, then we'll simply use the force of the state to make them. It's the compassionate thing to do!

:P

(I'm not claiming credit for this idea -- I think Thomas Sowell ran it in one of his "quick thought" pieces over at Capitalism Magazine.)