The Obligatory Socialized Oil Column

I tend to wrinkle my nose when I hear our friends on the Right referring to Democrats as communists or socialists. It’s needless, caustic hyperbole in an already incindiary political climate. That’s why I found myself doing a double-take upon looking at this article from Outside the Beltway this morning. (Be sure to click through to watch this jaw dropping video of Congressman Maurice Hinchey talking about the oil industry.)

HINCHEY: So if there’s any seriousness on the part of what our Republican colleagues are saying in the House and elsewhere about improving the number of refineries, then maybe they’d be willing to have these refineries be owned publicly – owned by the people of the United States – so that the people of the United States can determine how much of the product is refined and put on the market. To me, that sounds like a very good idea.

That just happens to be MY congressman talking. (Excuse me for a moment while I bang my head on my desk…. OUCH. OUCH. OUCH… Ok. That’s a little better.) Clearly I need to pen a quick letter to my representative in The People’s House, but since I was going to write a column for TMV this morning, I may as well do it here.

Congressman Hinchey,

Speaking as one of your constituents, I watched with interest your recent comments about “nationalizing” the oil industry in our country. This fascinating proposal brought several questions to mind, chief among which was the following: Is your Democratic Party so fearful of winning two elections in a row and having to take the reigns of power that you’ve simply decided to throw yourselves on your swords? Or have you perhaps spent too long in cozy chats with Hugo Chavez that some of his thinking is creeping into the cloak rooms of Congress? You are aware, are you not, that the chief hallmark of socialism is “a political theory advocating state ownership of industry” as found in most dictionaries? I don’t like paying four dollars a gallon for gas either, but having you folks take over a major industry is… alright, I don’t really even have a word for what that is.

Assuming you could find support for this proposal, I’m more than curious as to how you would pay for it. If you think running the war in Iraq is expensive, I’m wondering where you’re going to come up with the cash to buy out the oil industry. It would be a staggering figure involving words like “trillions” among others. Or would you propose that our government simply seize their assets? Please… stop. Just stop. Go meet with your friends and figure out how we can let industry build some new, safer fission based nuclear power plants without the builders being regulated into the ground. Subsidize some major investments in micro-hydro. Let the states decide if they want to drill for more oil until we can fully move to renewable energy resources. If you really want to address the energy problems we face, seriously… go do something useful.

Regards,

Jazz Shaw

UPDATE: Over at Right Wing Nuthouse, our friend Rick Moran looks askance at government control of industry for “the benefit of the people” and concludes the following:

How often have we heard that battle cry in history? And oh how miserably those who have uttered it have failed to deliver promised benefits. From Lenin to Castro to Mugabe, the nationalization of industry to benefit “the people” has been a spectacular economic disaster. In the end, production in nationalized industry always declines. In the end, the industry has always fallen into ruins.