Kill the Capitalists

So here we are in groupthink. Read Wall Street Journal editorial below. I used to think this country, from the President down to school boards and other local officials, were in grid lock, now they’re also on stupid and acting like a herd of sheep being chased to the cliff by the wolves. We know why the Democrats voted for federal penalties, but now the Republicans are in meltdown.

I know, OTBL bloggers will tell me, we told you so. I looks like RINO is the name of the new party, not just certain individuals.

Wall Street Journal online; May 11, 2006; Page A16

Perhaps the explanation is an outbreak of mad cow disease on Capitol Hill. Last week the House of Representatives expressed its collective outrage over high gas prices by voting as a herd, 389-34, to make gasoline “price gouging” a federal felony.

Really. This command and control legislation reads like the kind of law passed by the old Soviet Politburo. If an oil company is found guilty of charging a “grossly excessive” price for gasoline, it could face a $250 million fine and its executives face imprisonment. Even neighborhood service station owners could be sentenced to two years in jail and a $2 million fine for the high crime of charging too much at the pump.

One small problem is that no one in Washington can seem to define what constitutes price gouging. Under the House legislation, the bureaucrats at the Federal Trade Commission would define a “grossly excessive” price and then, once prosecutors charge some politically vulnerable target, juries across the country would decide who’s guilty and who’s not. A Senate version, sponsored by Maria Cantwell of Washington, contains terms like “excessively unconscionable price increases” and “a gross disparity” between the normal price and the price during a shortage or an emergency.

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