Crude Realities: the politics of oil, money

It could not be a better time for the Democrats to elect a president.

We are in the throes of an expensive and unnecessary war. The GOP spends, well, like Democrats and also refuses to cut federal outlays.

Oil prices are high and home prices are down. George W. Bush is so unpopular now that I am not entirely sure he has been invited to his daughter’s upcoming wedding. All I wonder is just how the Dems will screw this one up.

Since taking the Senate and House on Jan. 4, 2007, and promising to lower oil prices, the Democrats have presided over a 115 percent increase. Oil hit an all-time high of $120 a barrel this week; and it was $55 a barrel just two years ago. If only we could fuel our cars on lies and implausible political rhetoric, we would all be driving for free.

It is always funny to watch people swallow the supposition, so artfully sold as fact, that politicians can do anything about economic matters except make them worse. It is a patently false premise that politicians can do anything about the price of an internationally fungible commodity such as oil.

Economics, at its core, is simple: prices are determined by supply and demand. They always have been, and they always will be.

Yet this is not taught well by the liberal education system in America, mostly because wealth is despised, and those who make money are viewed as society’s villains. The good news is that for those willing to learn economics and practice it with confidence, there are millions to be made in a world that finds it easier to rely on politicians for their well-being.

Please realize that government does not produce anything; it only gets in productivity’s way. Government only produces more government, and in the process, it takes money away from the most productive members of society while vilifying them in the process. As my hero P. J. O’Rourke said: “The mystery of government is not how Washington works, but how to make it stop.”

Governments are not responsible for the economic success of their citizens. Communist countries like Cuba and North Korea have plenty of government, but not enough food or electricity. Just try getting rich in those countries and see what happens to you.

The Democrats, who refused to allow drilling for oil in a small piece of Alaska called ANWR, and who have not allowed a new oil refinery or nuclear power plant to be built in over eight years, somehow have gotten the upper hand in the spin game as to who would be better at lowering prices.

When asked why they have not changed their positions on the above, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed this pertinent question and said that none of these ideas would produce cheap energy for eight years. This is exactly what she and the Dems said eight years ago. Just how short-sighted can politicians be? More telling, just how dumb do they think we are?

Obama wants “change,” but somehow could not change his racist and delusional pastor. In fact after hearing that Obama is cutting loose from his 20-plus-year relationship with the person who married him because of insulting, cold and callous comments, Bill Clinton said, “Wow, I might look into that!”

Hillary can only hope that her party does not take its cue from the Kentucky Derby and euthanize the only filly in the race after coming in second. She gave an 8 p.m. victory speech in Indiana well before the Gary, Ind., results came in.

It got within one point late into the night until it was called for her at 1 a.m. I stayed up just to see her face if she lost. Her stellar makeup team probably was unwilling to be in Indiana for any length of time, so it would have been worth it.

To Obama’s credit, he is not stooping to Hillary and McCain’s shallow gas tax holiday. He rightly calls it a “gimmick,” maybe because he did not think of it. Obama sees right through the populist gas tax cut that saves you 30 cents a day. Sally Struthers cannot feed a starving African for that.
Hillary, meanwhile, plans to take the money from oil company profits. If you ever wondered why the U.S. loses jobs and companies, look no further than Hillary’s proposal to tax legally earned money on a political whim.

This is as smart as Washington’s insistence on turning our food into fuel; what could possibly go wrong there?

Politicians, you can continue your meaningless populist pandering to the least intelligent and most expedient among us. You can keep your lobbyist perks, your big offices and private jets. But please get out of the way and allow those greedy capitalist pigs you so vilify and tax do what they do best: bring the American people the products they want in the most efficient manner and at the lowest market competitive prices.

Government could not run a successful church car wash, much less an economy.

Please stop trying.

Ron Hart is a Southern libertarian columnist who writes a weekly column about politics and life. He worked for Goldman Sachs and was appointed to The Tennessee Board of Regents by Lamar Alexander. His E-mail: RevRon10@aol.com