the Right Angler
On Friday, Nancy Pelosi, made her choice clear. She dismissed Congress, shut down the cameras on the floor, killed the lights, turned off the microphones and led the Democrats out. No debate. No vote. No oil.
Well, for once, the Republicans held their ground. Lead by Representative Mike Pence [R: IN] and Representative Tom Price [R:GA], they simply refused to leave the House chamber. One by one, in the dark, they stood up at the podium or on chairs and took turns speaking. Slowly, the House chamber filled back up with staffers and visitors. The scene was described as “positively electric”. For perhaps the first time ever, there were chants of: “Work, Work, Work.” Representative Thaddeus McCotter [R:MI] proclaimed: “This is the people’s House. This is not Pelosi’s politburo.” Five hours and forty-five minutes later, they concluded with a rendition of “God Bless America” and chants of “USA…USA…USA.”
In an attempt at damage control, Speaker Pelosi appeared on “This Week” with George Stephanopolous on Sunday. She made it clear that there will not be a vote on domestic drilling anytime soon. You see, she would rather blame oil for non-existent global warming and the oil companies for “windfall profits” than allow us to do the one thing that will lower its price: drill for more of it.
Why? Well, they would have you believe its because they feel that drilling for more oil won’t solve our oil problems. Of course, that is like saying that giving a man water won’t solve his dehydration problems. They also claim that drilling now won’t help us for 7-10 years. First of all, if we would’ve done this 6 years ago, when President Bush asked for it, we’d be on the verge of an increased supply just in time for winter; and second of all, even if that is true, oil demand is only increasing. I n 7-10 years, when gas is $10/gallon, are we not going to need more oil?
To tell you the truth, I feel silly even responding to these arguments. The fact is the Democrats hands are tied because they rely so heavily on campaign donations from the environmental lobby. They simply can’t support domestic oil drilling. They’ve made too many promises, and they’re in too deep. It’s unfortunate too because if Congress lifted the ban on domestic drilling tomorrow, the world marketplace would immediately price in a future increase in supply, and the price of oil would come down. Anyone who understands supply, demand, free-markets and speculation knows this. If you don’t understand these concepts, just look at what happened when President Bush reversed the executive order that banned domestic oil drilling a few weeks ago. The price of oil immediately fell $6.00 and has continued to fall more than $25.00 since. Bush did nothing more than create the perception that America might drill our own oil and the price plummeted. Just imagine what would happen if Congress gave us authorization to actually start drilling.
The House stand-off isn’t over. House Republicans went back to the floor to continue their protest. Rep. Mike Pence issued this statement: “It was simply wrong for Congress to take a five-week paid vacation without ever taking a vote on giving the American people more access to American oil. I look forward to joining our leaders and my fellow Republicans returning to Congress this week. This is not a revolt, this is democracy in action.”
Now, to be fair, all Democrats are not hiding in their home districts. Barack Obama thought really hard and came up with his own plan to deal with the crisis. He revealed it at a campaign stop in Missouri: “There are things that you can do individually though to save energy; making sure your tires are properly inflated, simple thing, but we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups. You could actually save just as much.”
Yes, this is a real quote. Yes, he is serious. Yes, this man is running for President.
