Congressional Leadership? Hah!

There is a good reason public opinion polls put Congress’s popularity at 14 percent in the middle of a national emergency. It is a know-nothing, do-nothing institution. Congress is so far behind the public curve that it should be ashamed of itself, the Democratic leadership in particular, but not only.

There is a good reason public opinion polls put Congress’s popularity at 14 percent in the middle of a national emergency. It is a know-nothing, do-nothing institution. Congress is so far behind the public curve that it should be ashamed of itself, the Democratic leadership in particular, but not only.

When the price of gas hit “The Tipping Point” (read the book) the very American belief in the power of the individual kicked in. Never mind Congress’s inability to pass new fuel efficiency standards. Sales of large cars plummeted, sales of small or hybrid cars with far higher miles per gallon figures than Congress is even willing to debate have risen. Thirty-five thousand people (including some of us) signed up for the Chevy Volt electric car that won’t be available for another two years. On the save side, Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation in 2007, the highest level in 50 years. We drove 11 BILLION fewer miles in March 2008 than we did in March 2007 – BILLION – the largest drop since recording began during wartime 1942. If the Sun is 92 million miles away, how many times could we have made the trip?

But Congress is still dithering about drilling, refining and building nuclear power plants. “We can’t drill our way out of this,” they chant. No, we can’t. But we can drill, refine, generate, reuse, reduce and recycle. Congress could drop the tariff on imported sugar from our Caribbean friends and make sugar ethanol (which takes much less energy to produce) the way Brazil does, instead of paying producers to put food in our gas tanks. But it won’t.

Democrats are so adamantly opposed to increasing domestic energy that they are willing to bollix up the whole government. Rather than debate offshore drilling – for fear it would pass – Democratic leadership of the House and the Senate cut off all budget debate. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid (and budget chairmen David Obey and Robert Byrd) will go with a Continuing Resolution for spending until next February because no way will they give President Bush what he wants now.

And therein lies the problem. What about what We the People want?

One major difference between the oil shocks of the 1970s and now is that the American people now know that oil from abroad is not only expensive, it is dangerous. Then, we didn’t have al Qaeda – and hadn’t had September 11th with 11 of the 19 hijackers coming from Saudi Arabia. The oil shock of the Iranian Revolution came when most Americans didn’t know how bad the Mullahs would be. Now we know they are building nuclear weapons capability, threatening Israel and supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria. Now we have Hugo Chavez spouting anti-American garbage and supporting the drug and terror lords in Colombia, subverting a democratic friend of the United States.

Most Americans now understand that, in a quirk of fate and geology, a lot of oil is under land governed by people who wish us ill, and a lot of energy lies at home. We have an economic and national security emergency, and the ability to address at least part of it domestically. The people get it, but Congress clearly doesn’t. It makes us wonder what the 14 percent are thinking.