Representative Emanuel Cleaver and Integrity
Politicians fill an important role in our society, and it is a shame that many, like Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City Missouri do not take their role seriously. Rep. Cleaver like many Democrats in Congress like the sound of their voice, they like the high office, when confronted with hard work they don’t like rolling up their sleeves, and when confronted with the truth they don’t like accepting it.
As oil prices have risen over the last year, forcing families to stretch their already stretched budgets Congress started looking to a scape goat. First they looked towards President Bush. However, he didn’t work as a scape goat because his approval rating were already to low. Then they just ignored the problem, they had made waves for several years every time that oil prices hit a new high per barrel or any time the price at the pump hit a new record, but Congress was suspiciously quiet when the cost per barrel of oil moved above the $100 mark.
Yesterday, Congress finally gave up and pointed to the victim of their deeds and called them the villian. Big Oil, is who Congress named as the perpetrator of these crimes. Stealing money off of the kitchen table, holding the little man down, and waving their extravagant profits in our face.
What they are missing in this accusation is any academic integrity in these accusations, and who else should lead this blind charge than Kansas City’s own Rep. Emanuel Cleaver who pushed the blame onto the powerless in yesterday’s hearing.
The academic integrity that these supposed pillars of our communities lack is that they haven’t taken the time to step back from the issue for even a second and look at the numbers objectively. A few posts ago, I wrote about a Tax Foundation study that shows that government has profited from Big Oil more than Big Oil has profited over the past quarter century. That is just a sampling of where the members are wrong. They should also be blaming themselves for restricting supply, increasing the the costs of the current supply with expensive cafe standards, etc, etc….
This election cycle there are a few glimmering stars that rising, but we have a long ways to go for Congress to earn back the respect that it deserves.
