Appeals to ignorance that are working

Emmett Tyrrell:

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First, consider the Democrats' cruel exploitation of their supporters' hopes and fears regarding rising gasoline prices. Both Clinton and Obama have talked as though those prices can be lowered. Clinton specifically talks of lowering federal gas taxes during the summer. That will do it, but only for the summer. The problem is that oil demand worldwide has exceeded supply. As legendary oilman Boone Pickens has been warning for several years, the world can produce about 85 million barrels of oil a day, and demand -- thanks to growing prosperity in developing nations -- now exceeds that production level. Even if somehow the world could produce more than 85 million barrels daily, we do not have refinery capacity to turn the oil into gasoline. Environmentalists oppose increasing refinery capacity. Doing so will take years. America needs to develop alternative energy sources, and market pressure will ensure this development more effectively than demagoguery.

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Or consider the Democrats' promise to pay for their new or expanded programs by eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Though neither the Obama campaign nor the Clinton campaign is forthcoming with the costs of its promises, the National Taxpayers Union estimates that the Obama platform will increase federal spending by $307.3 billion. The Clinton platform's price tag is $226.1 billion. No rollback of the Bush tax cuts would cover that kind of wanton spending increase. The Heritage Foundation puts the figure at less than $60 billion annually. Amazed by the dishonesty of the presidential candidates, The Washington Post's economics columnist lamented this week that "the candidates dissemble because they believe that Americans don't want the truth. It would be too upsetting."

That brings us to the candidates' empty boasts on global warming. Here all three remaining presidential candidates dwell in error. They promise to moderate global warming by reducing carbon emissions, but it is not clear how culpable carbon emissions are for global warming. In an enlightening new book on climate change, "An Appeal to Reason," Nigel Lawson, former chancellor of the exchequer and British secretary of energy, explains that for the past seven years, there has been no global warming. During the last quarter of the 20th century, there was a modest increase in the Earth's temperature of a half-degree Celsius; but in the three decades prior to that, the Earth was cooling. Moreover, though carbon emissions have continued to increase through our years of cooling, warming and now temperature stability, the consequences of carbon emissions remain unclear. Worse, Lawson argues, there are no foolproof policies to limit carbon in the atmosphere.

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The shortage of energy and the global warming claims are interrelated. Democrats are strangling production of oil and gas and other formers of energy because of their concerns about global warming. Because they can't decrease demand, the price is rising and they are floundering around looking for someone other than themselves to blame.

When it comes to taxes they live in a wonderland of their own. Whatever the problem they are willing to raise taxes to solve it. Just as they try to repeal the law of supply and demand on energy, they try to repeal the law of diminishing returns on taxes.