Politics

Wrong Problem and Wrong Answers

Today, the House voted upon and passed H.R. 6346, Mr. Stupak?s (D-MI) ?Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act.? This bill will not lower the price of gasoline at the pump and could lead to gasoline shortages as well as deter future domestic refinery infrastructure investments. The Federal Trade Commission already possesses the tools needed to combat marketplace collusion or price fixing through Federal antitrust laws and has produced numerous documents discounting the claim that price gauging is occurring. This bill also attempted to address another issue in the wrong manner. Mr. Stupak?s legislation uses monies collected from price gauging, assuming that an individual or corporation were found guilty of such a crime and fined, to be deposited in a separate fund in the treasury to be known as the Consumer Relief Trust Fund. The fund would be used to provide assistance under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

The LIHEAP program is administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the program is to provide assistance to low income families to pay their heating and cooling bills. Due to the rise in cost of crude oil since the 1980s when this program was created, its purchasing power has increasingly diminished annually. It seems again that many Members have missed the point. The answer is not to just simply continue throwing additional taxpayer dollars at the problem, but to address the issue of decreased purchasing power due to an increase in the cost of crude oil. The answer rests with working to reduce the cost to heat and cool homes.

Full post as published by Mike Conaway's Blog on June 24, 2008 (boomark / email).