This week in bad ideas, progressive Democrats are looking for new ways to prolong the recession:
Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a “Reasonable Profits Board” to control gas profits.
The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a “windfall profit tax” as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.
The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a “windfall profit tax” as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.
Remember, when you impose price-controls, you create scarcities. There are a lot of emerging markets, like China, that could use more oil right now.
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Perhaps this just seems quaint or amusing, but the Department of Health and Human Services is already doing this for insurers, using equally arbitrary criteria.
