Although he’s “watchin’ out for us”, Bill O’Reilly does sometimes have to twist himself into a pretzel to be oh- so- ” fair and balanced”.
Last night (Wed.) was such an occasion.
Bill has always had it in for “Big Oil”. Last night he took the opportunity to vent his rage over the soaring price of gasoline (see O’Reilly column below).
Ostensibly, Bill invited an industry representative on his show to make the case for why it is not unconscionable gouging by Big Oil to be charging such high prices for gasoline during such a difficult time for American consumers.
I say “ostensibly” because it became clear that Bill was not interested in any case against his position be made. During the industry’s spokesman’s efforts to respond to O’Reilly’s rapid fire accusations, the host would interrupt, rant, and generally dismiss anything the man tried to say.
O’Reilly did acknowledge that the Obama administration shared some of the responsibility (mainly by failing to tax the oil companies more) and was more than pleased that soaring gas prices will help Obama advance his green agenda.
Here’s some points that the industry spokesman tried to make:
– gas prices are soaring, output is high, domestic inventories are more than adequate for the reduced demand, US companies are exporting petroleum products to China and other foreign countries.
– Oil and gas prices, however, are driven by world prices; they have risen dramatically due to high demand by China, the Iranian threats to cut off oil shipments through the Gulf of Hormuz; and the cutoff of Iran’s oil to France and Germany
O’Reilly seems to argue that, because the oil companies’ profits are soaring along with oil prices, that ain’t right. The oil companies should sell their products at prices below world market prices, maybe even below their cost because US consumers are hurting. One thing O’Reilly doesn’t mention when he deplores Big Oil’s record profits is that the companies also pay record taxes…now.
Bill thinks they oughtta pay more and Obama is derelict in dealing with the gas price crisis only because he doesn’t tax them more. He doesn’t see any reason for Obama to allow more domestic oil production. In his view, US production is already abundant with demand down. Prices should, thus, be going down instead of up.
I believe our host who’s lookin’ out for us doesn’t see any correlation between more worldwide oil availability and downward pressure on worldwide oil prices. He apparently doesn’t see any good to come from Our Dear Leader allowing more oil production and exploration. He only believes that if the US has adequate inventories, oil companies should give the stuff away to US customers instead of selling it on the worldwide market where they can make a profit.
That ends my talking points memo for the day, just my opinion you understand. DLH
