{"id":7237,"date":"2006-04-26T09:10:52","date_gmt":"2006-04-26T13:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7237"},"modified":"2006-04-26T09:10:52","modified_gmt":"2006-04-26T13:10:52","slug":"like-prescribing-aspirin-to-take-care-of-prostate-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/like-prescribing-aspirin-to-take-care-of-prostate-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Like prescribing aspirin to take care of prostate cancer’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading over the coverage of the [tag]White House[\/tag]’s new-found interest in [tag]gas prices[\/tag], one thing seems clear: no one actually thinks Bush’s measures will do anything<\/a> to make gas cheaper. Yesterday, the president emphasized that “every little bit helps,” but I don’t think [tag]Bush[\/tag] appreciates the nuances of this political game.<\/p>\n

Amid growing Republican unrest about the politics of $3-plus gasoline, Bush told the Renewable Fuels Association he will take the unusual step of suspending shipments to the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost supply and help hold down [tag]oil[\/tag] prices. The president also said he will temporarily ease environmental regulations that require the use of cleaner-burning fuel additives to cut down on summertime pollution. […]<\/p>\n

This could save consumers a few cents per gallon at best, energy experts said. Philip K. Verleger, an Aspen, Colo.-based oil consultant, said that Bush’s proposals were “more or less like prescribing aspirin to take care of prostate cancer.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By any reasonable measure, yesterday’s pitch had almost nothing to do with energy policy and everything to do with a White House which is starting to panic a bit<\/a> about a 32% approval rating.<\/p>\n

The strategy seems to be that Bush will show Americans that he’s a) concerned about gas prices, just like they are; and b) doing something<\/i>. But the risk is even greater than inaction — when Americans notice that gas prices remain largely unchanged, the president has positioned himself for even more [tag]blame[\/tag], whether it’s deserved or not.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the centerpiece of Bush’s new “plan” — suspending oil shipments to the strategic oil reserve — will, according to the WaPo, “increase the domestic supply by less than 1 percent.” The effort has been tried before, but it’s never had a meaningful effect. The LA Times noted<\/a> that “even officials in the White House say [Bush’s] actions will have little effect on pump prices.”<\/p>\n

On a related note, some of the competing proposals on the Hill were shot down by Republican leaders yesterday. They included plans to curtail tax cuts for oil companies and a measure that would impose a new [tag]tax[\/tag] on some oil company profits. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading over the coverage of the [tag]White House[\/tag]’s new-found interest in [tag]gas prices[\/tag], one thing seems clear: no one actually thinks Bush’s measures will do anything to make gas cheaper. Yesterday, the president emphasized that “every little bit helps,” but I don’t think [tag]Bush[\/tag] appreciates the nuances of this political game. Amid growing Republican unrest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}