Obama’s Plan To Bring Down Gas Prices

Does our president understand economics?

Facing heat for high gasoline prices, President Obama tried to shift the focus to Congress, Republicans and energy traders, calling for legislation that he said would “put more cops on the beat” to crack down on potential manipulation of the oil market.

Obama called on Congress to provide more money for regulators and increase penalties for market manipulators. The president, flanked by Treasury SecretaryTimothy F. Geithnerand Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., suggested that traders and speculators are affecting the price of oil and digging into Americans’ pocketbooks.

“We can’t afford a situation where some speculators can reap millions while millions of American families get the short end of the stick,” Obama said in brief remarks in the Rose Garden on Tuesday. “That’s not the way the market should work.”

Obama’s proposal would add $52 million to the budget for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees oil futures markets, to pay for improved technology and additional employees. The president also proposed increasing the maximum civil and criminal penalties for manipulative activity in oil futures markets and beefing up data collection.

via Obama proposes steps to curb manipulation of oil market – latimes.com.

Or he could build the pipeline for Canadian oil. Or he could open up Alaskan and coastal regions for drilling. Or he could suspend restrictions on the building of more oil refineries. Or he could lower gasoline taxes (as opposed to the Democratic strategy of raising them). Or all kinds of other things rather than increase regulation and penalize–or even criminalize–investors!