Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Yakety yak
Kindler Gentler Georgie is using words to answer the gas-price problem.
Does he actually understand that he occupies the office of President? We humble citizens and bloggers can do nothing but bitch and moan and suggest solutions. The President -- uniquely -- can take concrete steps to solve this problem, because it's not just a matter of prices but an obvious part of the current war.
Executive orders were meant to be a wartime tool. Clinton overused them in peacetime, but that doesn't mean a wartime president should avoid them. Now is the proper time for executive action.
For one thing, he can open up all offshore drilling by executive order, even if that hurts the feelings of Bro Jeb and Bro Arnold. For another, he can remove all legal barriers to building new refineries with the 'stroke of a pen', and then give oil companies an urgent choice: Build them, or we'll nationalize you. He can do the same with nuclear power. Remove regulatory barriers, enact Loser Pays in all federal courts, and then dare the power companies to get going. (This approach to nukes will work easily because power companies are already well underway with plans for many new nuclear plants. With oil, the forcible alternative might be needed.)
I know that KGG will not do any of this, because he is basically a World Federalist liberal, a citizen of the United Nations. KGG obviously cares more about Mexico, Dubai, and China than about dull old America. ¶ 8:02 PM
Does he actually understand that he occupies the office of President? We humble citizens and bloggers can do nothing but bitch and moan and suggest solutions. The President -- uniquely -- can take concrete steps to solve this problem, because it's not just a matter of prices but an obvious part of the current war.
Executive orders were meant to be a wartime tool. Clinton overused them in peacetime, but that doesn't mean a wartime president should avoid them. Now is the proper time for executive action.
For one thing, he can open up all offshore drilling by executive order, even if that hurts the feelings of Bro Jeb and Bro Arnold. For another, he can remove all legal barriers to building new refineries with the 'stroke of a pen', and then give oil companies an urgent choice: Build them, or we'll nationalize you. He can do the same with nuclear power. Remove regulatory barriers, enact Loser Pays in all federal courts, and then dare the power companies to get going. (This approach to nukes will work easily because power companies are already well underway with plans for many new nuclear plants. With oil, the forcible alternative might be needed.)
I know that KGG will not do any of this, because he is basically a World Federalist liberal, a citizen of the United Nations. KGG obviously cares more about Mexico, Dubai, and China than about dull old America. ¶ 8:02 PM
