"Greedier" Than the Evil Oil Companies?!

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Drew Johnson points out that no one -- not oil companies, gas station owners, or speculators -- profits more from high gas prices than the government does. For example, Exxon made 7 cents per gallon; local, state and federal taxes combined for a whopping total of 50 cents.

In June of 2008, John Harwood interviewed candidate Obama:

HARWOOD: So could these high [gas] prices help us?

Sen. OBAMA: I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment. The fact that this is such a shock to American pocketbooks is not a good thing. But if we take some steps right now to help people make the adjustment . . . by encouraging the market to adapt to these new circumstances more quickly, particularly US automakers, then I think ultimately, we can come out of this stronger and have a more efficient energy policy than we do right now.

In other words, for then-Senator Obama, high gas prices weren't a problem, so long as the increases came gradually. In fact, they were an opportunity for the government to "encourage" the market -- and automakers -- to operate differently.

Well, we've seen what Obama's "more efficient energy policy" looks like: Solyndra, Fisker and the Volt (perhaps best described as "ObamaCar"). Not pretty.