Gas Price Relief: The Art Of Looking Like You’re Doing Something

John Hinderaker over at Power Line blog, razor sharp as usual, goes through the components of Senate Republicans’ “Gas Price Relief and Rebate Act of 2006” one by one. Not a pretty sight.

He gives this humdinger of a close to the posting titled Wasn’t There A Time When Republicans Knew Something About Economics?:

Look at it this way: if the oil companies agreed among themselves not to drill for oil in new locations like ANWR, and not to build new refineries, …to limit the supply of oil and thereby drive prices higher, it would be illegal; indeed, it would be the greatest price-fixing conspiracy in American history. But it isn't the oil companies that have conspired to limit supply and thereby drive prices higher. It is our government...

Read the whole thing.

Hinderaker makes a very good point commenting that the Republican Senators’ proposal does nothing. Other than the ANWR drilling, it does not acknowledge supply and demand rules that govern prices. It is pretty much just crude pandering that we have gotten used to expect from Democrats, not Republicans.