A Practical Suggestion for President Bush and Congress
I rarely write about non-medical issues but I have an important policy recommendation that I think will help the country.
Several days ago, the media lampooned President Bush for being "snubbed" by the Saudi's for refusing his request to significantly increase oil production. Bush's request was part of his plan to to ameliorate the problem of seriously rising oil prices. I wasn't there but I imagine that his plea was met with an admonition to "go pound sand".
Today, it was announced that the House of Representatives passed a bill allowing the U.S. to sue OPEC for their antitrust activity in arbitrarily limiting oil production. I may be wrong on this but I kind of doubt that the idea of being sued in an American federal court has the OPEC nations shaking in their boots right now.
So to these two Solomonesque solutions, I've decided to add one of my own: Let's have a bipartisan committee from Congress travel, along with the president, to India and China and ask them to stop buying so much oil. Most economists believe that their dramatically increased consumption (due to rising industrialization) is a principle reason for our current high prices at the pump.
Who could doubt that these two countries would willingly curtail their own drive for progress so that we Yanks can shave off a buck or two a gallon here in the states?
See? This policy stuff isn't so hard.
Several days ago, the media lampooned President Bush for being "snubbed" by the Saudi's for refusing his request to significantly increase oil production. Bush's request was part of his plan to to ameliorate the problem of seriously rising oil prices. I wasn't there but I imagine that his plea was met with an admonition to "go pound sand".
Today, it was announced that the House of Representatives passed a bill allowing the U.S. to sue OPEC for their antitrust activity in arbitrarily limiting oil production. I may be wrong on this but I kind of doubt that the idea of being sued in an American federal court has the OPEC nations shaking in their boots right now.
So to these two Solomonesque solutions, I've decided to add one of my own: Let's have a bipartisan committee from Congress travel, along with the president, to India and China and ask them to stop buying so much oil. Most economists believe that their dramatically increased consumption (due to rising industrialization) is a principle reason for our current high prices at the pump.
Who could doubt that these two countries would willingly curtail their own drive for progress so that we Yanks can shave off a buck or two a gallon here in the states?
See? This policy stuff isn't so hard.
Labels: Humor, Politics As Usual
posted by The Medicine Man at 9:27 PM
2 Comments:
The sad thing is that although your suggestion of having China and India curtail oil use, there are surely Senators and Reps with an inflated sense of self-importance, who would actually consider doing this.
An average US consumer uses 32 gallons of gas compared to just ONE gallon used by an an average consumer in India. The economies of scale clearly point to the obvious solution - we in US need to conserve, switch to renewable fuels, switch to hybrid and electric vehicles etc etc. Blaming others for our profligate ways is no different from barking up the tree.
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