Democrats say law of supply and demand is absurd

Bob Herbert:

Senator John Kerry was on the phone and the words were coming in a rush.

“It’s a completely fraudulent argument,” he said. “It’s misleading. It’s snake oil salesmanship of the worst order.”

He was talking about the latest smoke screen in the presidential election, the bogus contention that lifting restrictions on offshore oil drilling would somehow, in the foreseeable future, bring down the price of gasoline for American motorists.

This absurd contention is now one of the main issues of the campaign. It’s the latest example of a very real fear (that sky-high energy prices will undermine the average family’s standard of living) being exploited shamelessly for political purposes.

Senator John McCain told cheering bikers at a giant motorcycle rally in South Dakota: “We’re gonna drill offshore! We’re gonna drill here, and we’re gonna drill now!” He told an audience in Lafayette Hill, Pa.: “We have to drill here and drill now. ... Drill here and drill now.”

With Senator McCain and the Republicans painting a false portrait of drilling as a method of relief for today’s high prices, and with polls showing the G.O.P. gaining traction on this issue, Senator Barack Obama has eased off his previous opposition to new offshore leases.

...

What is absurd is the suggestion that increased supply will not effect prices. Since President Bush lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling the price of oil has dropped by around $30 a barrel. Let assume the market was not reacting to that but to a slow down in the US economy. That means it was reacting to a shrinking demand. To suggest as Herbert and Kerry do that an increased supply in the future would not effect the price is to suggest they do not understand the market place. If you want a historical example look at how the price dropped upon the announcement a few years ago of a huge find in the Gulf of Mexico by Chevron.

What is irrational is suggesting that we should not want to drill offshore in the first place. It is based on some paranoid belief that it will lead to pollution, when statisitacally that is much more likely to occur from shipping oil from the Middle East.

The dirty little secret that the Democrats and liberals don't want to talk about is that they like high oil prices and they think strangling supply will make the cost of go up and in turn make althernative evergy more attractive. What they are admitting is that alternatives are not competitive in a free market.

What Kerry is doing is using Herbert to try to turn the voters around on an issue that the Democrats are getting killed on. Two-thirds of voters want to lift the restricitons on offshore drilling and that is the reason for Kerry's hysterical call to Herbert.