Big Sky Cairn

Democrats swept into power in 2006 on promises of lower gas prices. High costs, they argued, were hurting the working poor, one of the constituencies they were courting in their move toward Populism. See, unlike our tax code, gas prices act regressively and have a particular impact on rural areas where driving cannot be supplanted by public transportation.

We thought things were bad when gas prices were $2.33 for a gallon when the 110th Congress gaveled into session. Today, the national average is over $3.53 and rising. Why haven’t Democrats done anything?

They’ll never admit this - and they hope that we’ll all have goldfish memories - but high gas prices are just what Doctor Democrat has been ordering for years. See, while the working poor are important because they vote, environmentalists are even more important because they donate. A lot.

And for years, environmentalists have been complaining about the low price of gas. They complain because low gas prices prevent the market from adopting more expensive alternatives. They complain because low gas prices make gas-guzzling SUVs economically viable. They complain because low gas prices don’t account for what they call the environmental footprint of fossil fuels. And they still think gas prices are too high.

Economists feel that gasoline prices would need to double and remain there (i.e. $7-8/gallon) before behavior would really change, and advocate a gas tax to get us there. The externalities (accidents, smog, global warming, etc.) are simply not reflected in the current price of gasoline.

They have proposed carbon taxes, mileage taxes, gas taxes, energy taxes, congestion taxes and just about any other mechanism they could think up to make the price of a gallon of gasoline higher. The price we’re paying at the pump is the result of years of their efforts to prevent us from tapping our own energy supplies.

So when Americans wonder about the plan to lower gas prices, I am skeptical whether the Democrats would enact such a plan even if they had one. Given their record of fighting for higher gas prices, their promises in 2006 seemed hollow to me.

Man, you guys are a splog magnet.

I am smiling quietly to myself.

You’re pretty much spot on here - but one should not confuse policy initiatives with campaigning. They are only vaguely related. Gas tax holiday are pure pandering, a windfall tax won’t ever get traction. But deep within the bowels of government, where real policy is made, is an understanding that energy prices have to go up as the dollar goes down, and it is just something we have to live with.

The snipe about Democrats somehow being responsible for rising gas prices, since they won the election in 2006, is somewhat akin to giving Clinton credit for budget surpluses because he happened to be in office during an economic bubble. Sometimes government is a spectator to events, as with the bubble, but with energy prices, there is a direct link caused by soaring deficits and a need to bring down the dollar in response. Those deficits have been policy since 2001.