Integrity and the Price of Gas

Following up on my comment about "Integrity and George Ryan" (April 28 below), the whole brouhaha about gasoline prices has me wondering who has the most integrity: the Republicans, the Democrats, or the workers in the house of ill repute. Actually, I know who has the most integrity; I am just trying to figure out if the Republicans are second and the Democrats third or vice versa.

The Democrats are saying it is all Bush’s fault because he is an oil man, which I guess also proves their point about Bush being incompetent since it has taken him over five years to get prices this high. The Democrats are also saying "don’t drill, don’t build refineries, and don’t charge high prices." Sure, that’ll work as a policy.

The Republicans, on the other hand, are offering a $100 tax rebate plus a reduction in gas taxes (which should be just about balanced out at the pump by an increase in taxes on oil companies), as well as subpoenaing oil companies income tax returns – for 2004, the last year for which they are available.

President Bush complains we are addicted to oil. Well, raising cigarette prices helped cut down on the number of people smoking, so higher gas prices should cut down on our addiction to oil.

The bottom line is that to keep prices down you have to increase supplies (think ANWR and more refineries). If you are not going to increase supplies, then either prices are going to go up or you are going to have to impose price controls and pass out ration cards.

Yes, the ladies of the evening definitely have more integrity than these people. At least the ladies of the evening are honest about what they are doing.