Posted by
Sean on Monday, June 30, 2008 7:06:58 PM
Bill Richardson was hand picked by Barack Obama to deliver the Democrats Radio Address this week, energy being the topic. With gas prices at over $4 a gallon and climbing as a result of bad policy going back years -- including Richardson’s time as Energy Secretary -- the New Mexico governor seems a strange choice.
A smart man like Richardson must realize that: increased reliance on imports, refusal to allow more domestic drilling, and stubborn denial of nuclear power -- all policies he presided over under Clinton -- might not have been such good ideas after all. Richardson also seems committed to the disastrous Obama plan for a windfall profits tax, designed to punish the very folks whose expertise we need for the difficult job of extracting oil.
Said Richardson of Obama: "He'll tax the record profits of oil companies and use the money to help struggling families pay their energy bills."
It’s a little strange that Richardson is so hostile to an industry that -- thanks to the extremely high prices -- have actually saved New Mexico’s wasteful, big-spending budget. “Big Oil” nonetheless remains a much too irresistible, though contrived target, when you’re pretending to be on the side of the people.
When will Republicans, along with the McCain campaign, start showing all Americans what this means for our wallets? The last time our government tried a windfall profits tax, it actually increased our reliance on imports, stifled domestic production, and produced dismally disappointing revenues for our government.
When will Republicans, along with our nominee, start telling middle class voters that what the Democrats are planning amounts to a stealth tax increase on everything we purchase, by making everything we buy more expensive to make?
When will McCain and Republican candidates start to passionately offer both long and short term solutions, and condemn Democrats who continue to only think “short-term?”
Richardson and Democrats attempt to discredit real reform, saying of the new push for drilling that it "will do nothing to provide immediate relief for families struggling with the high cost of gas."
When are Republicans going to respond by saying, “well, it’s been too many years of ‘short-term’ thinking that have landed us in the desperate place we’re at today. Now is not the time for pandering. We must move forward to meet our nations needs -- both long and short term -- starting now.”
And when will the Democrats ever get called on their phoniness, like when Richardson delivers the talking points: "We believe the oil companies should drill on some of the millions of acres of land they already have but aren't using, instead of snapping up new land and putting our natural resources at risk."
It is time for McCain and Republicans to highlight the dishonesty of instructing the oil industry to drill where there’s no oil, while denying the opportunity to drill where there actually is. This backward policy that puts politics first continues to hurt hard working Americans.
This crisis presents an ideal opportunity for some forceful -- and long overdue -- “Straight-Talk".