I promise not to do this all the time. Fact-checking every speech Dick “Go F— Yourself” Cheney delivers would be virtually impossible — it’d require a full-time staff just to chronicle all of his misstatements, better yet correct them.
That said, I think Cheney’s comments in Arkansas yesterday about energy policy require special attention because they were so breathtakingly wrong.
Before getting into it, let’s note the current status of the federal government. Republicans control the House and Senate, and we have former oil executives heading the executive branch. Reality aside, Cheney wants us to believe high gas prices are the Dems’ fault.
The Bush-Cheney campaign accuses Senate Democrats of blocking a Bush energy plan that would increase petroleum drilling and energy conservation and provide new tax breaks and other incentives to spur exploration and production.
“John Kerry and John Edwards voted no,” Cheney said. “It’s another area where I think there is a significant difference.”
Cheney advocated increasing domestic oil production in wildlife areas in Alaska and other regions that are off-limits to development.
“We have put ourselves into a box. The only thing I can think of to do is to keep pushing for a comprehensive energy policy,” he said.
Well, Dick, you probably need to think a little harder.
First, blaming Kerry and Edwards for the energy bill’s failure on the Hill doesn’t make any sense. Dems didn’t filibuster Bush’s plan; the measure drew bi-partisan opposition. The administration negotiated with congressional leaders (read: other Republicans) but couldn’t make any progress and the bill stalled. If Cheney wants to blame anyone for holding up progress on the legislation, he should blame the leaders of his own party for failing to the keep the GOP caucus together.
Second, if Cheney were really willing to take responsibility for the plan’s shortcomings, he’d look in the mirror. As Josh Marshall noted, Bush’s own Energy Department reviewed the energy policy Cheney created and discovered that its effect on gas prices, even years into the future, would be “negligible.”
But the problem with Cheney’s mendacity goes much further. The energy plan that the VP came up with — the one that Kerry and Edwards wisely oppose — was crafted behind closed doors after extensive meetings with Enron and other energy executives. The results of this group effort are predictable.
The energy bill would give away billions in tax dollars to the energy industry. Bush’s energy bill…includes $23.5 billion dollars in tax breaks to the coal, oil and gas industries. The 15 companies that would benefit most from these provisions had after-tax profits of $56 billion between 1999 and 2002.
And even if Cheney were to get his wish, and we were to drill ANWR for oil, there’s no reason to believe this would have any effect on what we’re paying at the pump right now. The National Geological Survey concluded that the amount of oil available would be about 3.2 billion barrels. That may sound like a lot, but that’s a six-month supply of gas — and it wouldn’t be available, even if we started immediately, for another 10 years.
In other words, Cheney is blaming the Dems for high gas prices because Dems oppose a policy that wouldn’t lower gas prices.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that, according to Bush, we shouldn’t have to worry about the Dem minority in Congress to get cheaper gas; we just need presidential leadership.
In fact, during the 2000 campaign, Bush insisted that when gas prices went up and OPEC was under-producing, he’d just utilize his notorious charm and “jawbone” OPEC producers by getting “on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say, ‘We expect you to open your spigots.'” OPEC would be overwhelmed by the power of Bush’s leadership, oil production would increase, and gas prices would magically fall.
That, obviously, hasn’t happened. To once again avoid responsibility, the White House is predictably lashing out and blaming the Dems. Typical.