Disgraceful Demagoguery

By Michael Medved
Beyond the News

Congressional Republicans have joined their Democratic colleagues in disgraceful demagoguery over the painful rise in gas prices. Charges of "price gouging" provoke public rage, especially when oil companies report lavish profits, but why is it shocking that when international costs of a barrel of crude reach record levels, the U.S. price also increases? Should oil companies sell to Americans at lower prices than the rest of the world eagerly pays?

If Americans were to pay less than citizens of other nations (who are already accustomed to high pump prices), that would only guarantee future shortages at your local station: gas inevitably flows to markets paying the highest price.

Meanwhile, grandstanding politicos--both Republican and Democratic--ignore the one step they could take to put immediate downward pressure on oil prices: authorizing long-delayed drilling in a tiny portion of the remote Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, and disregarding the ravings of environmental fanatics.