Really does take a lot of guts to demand the closure of a loophole your party created and kept open, but Obama is proving himself up to the task of Democratic mendacity:
With the cost of gas a top issue in the presidential campaign, Barack Obama on Sunday will announce a plan to crack down on oil speculation by tightening regulations on energy traders.
The announcement is further evidence that an Obama administration would take an activist, populist approach to regulating business.
Obama wants to close a loophole in federal law that exempts some energy traders from regulations that govern other exchange-traded commodities. Democrats call this “the Enron loophole” because it benefited the Houston energy-speculation firm that collapsed in an accounting scandal.
In response, John McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said: “The truth is Barack Obama is following John McCain’s lead to close a Wall Street loophole that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. John McCain has supported bipartisan efforts to close this loophole and will work to address abuses in oil speculation.
“Barack Obama has voted the party line for Democrats who claim the loophole is fixed. The fact that Barack Obama is attacking John McCain, despite McCain’s leadership on the issue, shows that Barack Obama is driven by the partisan attacks that Americans are tired of.”
Rather typical of the liberals – enact a “solution” which actually becomes the problem, pretend to be shocked by the results, blame Republicans for it and then present another “solution” to the problem, which merely starts the whole process over again.
While there is grounds for reformed regulatory oversight of the commodities market the plain fact of the matter is that oil will remain high – no matter what regulations we enact – as long as people are willing to pay a high price for it. Speculators have done a lot to drive up the price, but so has increased demand outside the United States – the solution, however, to high energy prices is not to seek a Evil Enemy to blame (which is the basic plan of Obama and his Democrats), but to find cheap energy to replace the expensive energy. In this area, McCain simply blows Obama’s class warfare, socialist nonsense right out of the water.
McCain proposes increased production of American oil; increased development of nuclear power; increased use of clean coal technology…Obama proposes a Carteresque “windfall profits tax” (as if oil companies should be punished because other people are willing to pay a high price for their product…perhaps we should do a “windfall profits tax” on whomever makes the next hot Christmas toy on the same theory – if people want it a lot and are willing to pay a premium for it, then you’ve done something wrong), increased regulation and proposes nothing which will actually add to America’s non-oil energy supplies.
We’ve got a choice in November – between the hidebound, liberal practices of the 60’s and 70’s, or the forward looking policies set afoot since Reagan became President in 1981. For all Obama’s talk of change, he’s really all about implementing the policies McGovern advocated 36 years ago. Past vs future at stake – and Obama is stuck in the liberal economic dark ages, as if he’s learnt nothing at all.
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