Its Supply and Demand Silly

It seems strange to me. He said, "The government needs to get out of our lives. They screw up everything with their bureaucracy." This was in reference to taxes and policy. Recently he complained about the price of oil. "The government better put a stop to this or the economy will have problems."

OK, I just don't get it. Why do people see the government as a problem and then see it as the solution to the problems the create? How many times do I need to explain the law of supply and demand? Anyway, I thought Rush's monologue about the oil industry was excellent. You may read the entire transcript here.

Let me tell you how the Democrats and the American left look at this energy business. The thing that you have to understand is, it ain't about America. All this talk about alternative energy and hybrids, that's not about making America better. All this talk and conversation is not about making America cleaner. The way they think: power votes, getting as many people in their base to vote for them as possible, as many independents. By keeping the oil that we have, that we could drill and would decrease dependence on foreign oil. By keeping our oil in the ground and untapped, they become heroes to the environmentalist wackos. Then when the shortages, the necessity to import and that suppression of supply is depressed, what happens to price? Look at the price of oil now. Some of it's speculation; some of it's supply and demand. The price is going to continue to go up. And what happens then? When the low supply, the artificially low supply -- there needn't be a low supply given our reserves that are untapped -- that low supply drives up the price, they become the heroes of the poor and the freezing. How do they do that? Because they then attack Big Oil for gouging. And, of course, everybody hates Big Oil, just like they hate the boss.

So you've got people in the Northeast who use home heating oil and the price is going up because we've got an artificially depressed supply, thanks to Democrats. Those people have to pay through the roof for their heating oil, and the Democrats become their champions. They don't solve any problem unless Hugo Chavez comes to the rescue and sells it cheap. So the very people that are causing rising prices benefit twice from causing it. A, the environmentalist wackos love them and give them lots of money, and B, the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the freezing, think the Democrats are the ones standing up for them. That's the way they look at it. They're not interested in improving America's lot in the world, particularly not when a Republican is in the White House.

In the end, Democrats place themselves in a win/win situation. Simple economic education ought to fix such things. Perhaps I am being overly simplistic in my little mind?