"Make Price Gouging Illegal"

Ever since Maria Cantwell was elected to the United States Senate from the Soviet of Washington she has kept a pretty low profile. And a good thing too, since she got elected spending her own money from Real Networks stock options that, after the NASDAQ tanked, she didn’t have. But that’s OK. Hillary Clinton helped her out.

This year she is running for reelection so she has cudgelled her brain to come up with an issue that will resonate with the voters.

What do you think would go over real good? Price gouging! Yes, that should do it. So Sen. Cantwell is pushing a bill to make price gouging illegal.

Now you’ve worked for a private company, for at least a couple of years, Senator. How would that work?

Never mind. Her price-gouging gimmick is getting her on TV shows like Hardball so that when the the voters complain:

It makes me angry that the prices keep going up for no apparent reason other than the profit of the gas companies.

She can say, with a straight face that, given where the American public is right now

they want something done immediately. And that’s why we need a federal bill to make price gouging illegal.

Well now, Senator. And how would a law against price gouging have any effect immediately? And how exactly would you define price gouging so that it kept honest businessmen, assuming there are any, out of jail?

And what needs to be investigated is whether supply is being artificially manipulated, whether it’s being suppressed or shipped overseas for lower profits, only to have higher profits at home because there’s less supply. And until we have good transparency in these oil markets, we’re not going to be able to give consumers the confidence that prices aren’t being manipulated.

You know, Senator, what with the futures markets and what with spot prices and all, I’d say that the oil business, at least outside of the national oil companies of OPEC, is about as transparent as you can get. But that isn’t really important, does it? Not compared to the importance of getting reelected.

It’s a pity that Senator Cantwell didn’t seem to have time on Hardball to talk about increasing energy supplies. You know, boring things like drilling for oil and building new oil refineries and nuclear plants. Could that be because she has never voted to increase oil supply in her liberal Democratic life? And nuclear: isn’t that like dangerous, and stuff?