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WASHINGTON | When gasoline hit $4 a gallon in San Francisco, Republicans noted the location: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hometown.
From the Senate floor, Missourian Kit Bond mocked a 2006 promise Pelosi made before taking control of Congress to lower gas prices:
“Well, we certainly got change, all right. Since the Democrats have come to power in the House and Senate, pain at the pump has increased by 50 — five-zero — 50 percent.”
As everyone, pretty much worldwide, has noticed, oil is now bouncing around $115 a barrel. A year ago, it was $64. The rise is generally tagged to a massive increase in demand from industrial China and India that has outpaced supply, uncertainties in the global oil market and a weakening dollar. On Sunday, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline nationally was $3.60, close to the record $3.62 a week earlier.
It’s an issue that hits almost every American in the pocketbook. So, of course, lawmakers got busy doing what they do best: deflecting blame toward the other guy.
Republicans cast Democrats in the role of environmental wackos.
“Liberals in the House refuse to open up more drilling in the United States,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. “We’ve got oil. We’ve got gas. We have to be willing to go get it.”
Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri added: “It’s time that Congress passes an energy bill that actually produces energy so we can confront an issue that is directly hurting the American people and our economy.”
And Democrats bashed President Bush and the GOP for favoring friends in Big Oil more than the needs of the common person (well, voter).
“The Department of Justice stepped in to help investigate Enron’s manipulation of electricity prices,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington. “Now it needs to step up and investigate potential corruption in oil and gas markets.”
Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts said: “For nearly eight years this administration’s energy policy has been in the tank.”
Markey, chairman of the House Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, goes on to note that with the quadrupling of oil company profits in the last six years, the poorest fifth of U.S. households now spend almost 10 percent of their income just on gasoline.
And Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington noted: “American consumers deserve vigilant oversight from the feds when it comes to gas prices.”
“At a time when Big Oil is earning record profits, American families need someone on their side,” chimed Pelosi.
Of course, there are suggestions for relief out there. The one attracting the most attention is actually bipartisan. Both GOP presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain and Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton are calling for a “gas tax holiday.” Their plan: cut the 18-cent-a-gallon federal tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
MIT professor Joseph Doyle said economists “are as close to unanimous as it gets in viewing the proposal as a horrible idea.”
Indeed, a gas tax holiday could spur demand for fuel during the summer vacation season, plumping up oil company profits even more.
Other critics include the other Democratic candidate, Sen. Barack Obama. They know the tax money pays for highway and bridge maintenance and construction, and they doubt much tax relief would make it to consumers.
Obama’s take is that the plan offers minimal relief but puts an already stretched highway system in a funding bind.
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