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May 25, 2007

Confused Americans for Truth - Voter Gouging

by Ferdinand T Cat

Congress has passed a law that may make it a crime to set prices for energy products. It's called the Federal Price Gouging Protection Act, and it's essential for you to be outraged by it. The following paragraph from the Seattle Times explains why.

Even if approved, the impact of the legislation is uncertain. The biggest question is how price gouging would be defined. [Democratic Senator Maria] Cantwell acknowledged that problem but said the first step was to get criminal penalties on the books.

That's right, folks: the Democrats believe we should make something a crime before we figure out what the crime is.

Now, I try to be open-minded, so it's possible what we have here is an attempt to pass a meaningless reform that will look good in the newspapers without actually requiring anybody to do anything about high gas prices. However, I believe that Democrats are basically decent people who are simply too stupid to understand why the Constitution prohibits an ex post facto law.

The ex post facto prohibition exists so that people can go about their business doing things that are currently legal without worrying that the government will retroactively turn it into a crime. The anti-gouging bill circumvents this process by assigning to a regulatory agency the responsibility of determining what constitutes gouging. Here's how the Seattle Times explains it.

The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department to pursue complaints of profiteering and any activity that "indicates that the seller is taking unfair advantage" of unusual market conditions, whether real or perceived.

Violations would carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $2 million for an individual and up to a $150 million for a corporation.

In other words, the determination of whether or not something constitutes price-gouging is made after the price is set.

I'm sorry, but this is just too awful for words.

Liberals see conservatives as oppressive because we're opposed to things like adultery and pornography. These, however, are activities that occur on the periphery of society. Buying and selling occurs every day. Because it is possible to use accounting tricks to make ordinary commerce look like gouging, the Gouging Protection Act enables Congress to feel good about punishing a politically unpopular industry when a better understanding of economics would identify that the real problem is gasoline regulations pushed by Al Gore during the Clinton Administration.

Of course, a better understanding of economics would also show that higher gas prices make environmentally-friendly cars more cost-effective. It's as if they don't want people to buy environmentally friendly products until they force us to do it.

So let the President know that he should veto this bill, and when people start to excoriate him for doing so, explain to them exactly why the Gouging Protection Act is a bad idea. Liberals are supposed to be smarter than conservatives, so they should have no problem understanding these few simple concepts once they're explained.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson's Website, The Random Yak, The HILL Chronicles, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Nuke's news and views, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Cao's Blog, and Colloquium, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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I've been ashamed to have to call Maria Cantwell the "Senator from Washington" for years now. This woman has no understanding of the Constitution, nor of reality.

This new law is just another example of many ex-post-facto laws that our government is foisting off on us. One of the first, and worst is the Sherman act.


Posted by: Perri Nelson at May 25, 2007 11:02 AM


“[Democratic Senator Maria] Cantwell acknowledged that problem but said the first step was to get criminal penalties on the books.”

“. . . any activity that "indicates that the seller is taking unfair advantage" of unusual market conditions, whether real or perceived.”

“Violations would carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $2 million for an individual and up to a $150 million for a corporation.”

This is obscene!

THE FIRST STEP IS PENALTIES???

Any activity that INDICATES, UNFAIR ADVANTAGE, UNUSUAL MARKET CONDITIONS, PERCEIVED?????????

And violations with PENALTIES WORSE THAN MOST MURDERERS SERVE???

WOW!

I want to ask, snarkily, “Does this mean we can go after Barbra Streisand for her ticket prices?” but this isn’t a laughing matter.

This is truly monstrous!


Posted by: Minta Marie Morze at May 25, 2007 12:45 PM

It kind of makes me want to head for a border - any border.

You did a very fine job with this post.


Posted by: MaxedOutMama at May 25, 2007 5:00 PM

Personally, I believe that most Democrats are basically evil people who don't really care what the Constitution says (unless it serves their interests) on top of being too stupid to understand it.

Not that this two cents really matters.


Posted by: Michael at May 25, 2007 6:09 PM

In my first comment on this post, I jokingly mentioned going against Barbra Streisand for high ticket prices, which meets the criterion set by the government so far.

I just read on Drudge that Streisand won't be giving her concert in Rome because the Romans are angry at the immorally high ticket prices she's demanding.

Sounds like gouging to me.

Where's Congress when you need them??


Posted by: Minta Marie Morze at May 28, 2007 12:10 PM

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