Truth 
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What a concept!

Barrett Challenges Kind on Gas Prices

Showcases Emergency Plan to Cut the Price of Gas in Half 

[Philosophical preface: While I want to deregulate small business, I think we sometimes need to tax and regulate and occasionally bust up monopolies, cartels, and big speculators, in order to maintain a genuinely free market and promote economic well-being for society as a whole. As a New Libertarian, I think the Libertarian party should represent freedom and common sense, not extremist ideology.] 

The federal government and the fat cats who own it are waging war on our economy. Why isn't Ron Kind fighting back? 

Ron Kind has repeatedly voted to gouge the Wisconsin taxpayer to pay for the $5 trillion quagmire in Iraq. Now he's urging us to just roll over and let the oil speculators reap their windfall profits while we pay almost $4 a gallon for gas!  

Last week Ron Kind said the answer to $4 a gallon gas is spending your tax rebate on fancy light bulbs and shower-heads. He also attacked me personally, and claimed that he talks about the important issues, but I don't.  

Please compare my website, www.BarrettForCongress.US, with Ron Kind's website. Which one of us is talking about the real issues?  

Below is a plan to chase the fat-cat windfall profiteers and parasitical speculators out of the oil business. Ron Kind is letting speculators steal half of every dollar we spend on gasoline. I say it's time we paid the real cost of gas - half what it costs now. Below is a plan to make that happen. 

EMERGENCY ENERGY STABILIZATION PLAN  (EESP)

75% OF THE OIL PRICE IS HEDGE FUND SPECULATION!

TIME FOR TAX MEASURES AND A SURPRISE ATTACK TO SHUT DOWN THE SPECULATORS AND CUT PRICES FOR THE CONSUMER 

actindependent.org 

May 10, 2008 

Oil has now reached the astronomical price of $126 per barrel, with gasoline at $4 per gallon in many parts of the United States. The basic economic survival of this country and of much of the world is now threatened. The current price levels are unsustainable, and are destroying vital sectors of the economy, while placing an intolerable and unsustainable burden on working families. It is evident that there are abundant world supplies of oil. Indeed, there is a glut of oil on the world market. There is no shortage. Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, BP etc. are posting unprecedented super profits. Even more important, Wall Street and City of London hedge funds and investment banks are driving up the price of crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, natural gas, and other petroleum products. Every barrel of oil is bought and sold hundreds of times before it reaches the refinery, and every gallon of gas is bought and sold hundreds of times before it reaches the pump. The tools of this obscene speculation are derivatives, especially futures, options, and other forms of financial paper based on financial paper that go to make up the $1 quadrillion world derivatives bubble which is causing the present world economic depression. 

It is evident that between two thirds and three quarters of the present price of oil is the direct result of hedge fund and investment house speculation. There are indications that the now-bankrupt Bear Stearns alone accounted for 6 to 7% of the price of oil through its reckless and irresponsible speculative activities. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and JP Morgan Chase, and numerous foreign entities are now totally committed to oil speculation. If these manic speculators are not stopped, they will strangle the US economy  and bring production of vital goods and services to a halt. The oil price is also a key factor in creating the sky-high prices at the supermarket, which now represent a world food crisis, a famine of vast proportions. The choice is clear: if the speculators have their way, the American people will perish. We propose to stop the speculators. Urgent action is now required to enact the following: 

1.      Windfall tax on super-profits of the oil cartel. All profits above a five-year baseline average should be taxed at the rate of 50%, to be adjusted upwards as needed. Use the proceeds to lift the gas tax on motorists, farmers, truckers, taxi drivers, and the general public, while funding the Federal Highway Construction Fund at increased levels to create infrastructure jobs at union pay scales under the Davis-Bacon Act. 

2.      A Tobin tax or securities transfer tax (STT) of 1% paid by the seller to apply to all turnover in stocks, bonds, futures, options, derivatives, and other trading. This would represent a sales tax on all speculative paper that is bought and sold, whether or not a profit is realized. This Tobin tax will make all futures and options trading in crude oil, gasoline, natural gas, heating oil, coal, and other energy products reportable to the federal government by the speculators, so federal authorities can pinpoint the worst offenders and denounce them to the public. The 1% Tobin tax on all futures and options traded on the forward oil market will apply the brakes to the speculators of all kinds, including the oil and gas speculators. 

3.      Impose a 75% tax on all speculative profits realized through futures and options trading in the forward markets of crude oil, gasoline, natural gas, heating oil, diesel fuel, etc. Use the proceeds to create jobs building and maintaining modern high-technology infrastructure. This will discourage the parasitic hedge funds and investment houses of Wall Street and London from driving up the price. Severe penalties in federal prison for those who attempt to evade or circumvent this tax. 

4.      Sneak attack to destroy speculators. The United States now possesses a very substantial strategic petroleum reserve. This large reserve must not be dribbled away pointlessly, but must be used for a concerted action to bankrupt speculators and drive them out of business, while deterring all those who might seek to follow in their footsteps. With no advance warning or leaks whatsoever, the President must release about 25% of the strategic petroleum reserve onto the market. This must be done by a stealth attack, with the announcement being made without warning at 3 AM on Sunday morning to take the speculators completely by surprise. The resulting abrupt fall in the forward price of oil, gasoline, etc. will bankrupt those hedge funds and investment houses that are holding long derivatives-assisted positions in the oil market in the expectation that prices will continue to rise. Other investment firms will suffer severe losses, and will think long and hard before they ever attempt to speculate in oil and gasoline again. When the worst offenders line up in bankruptcy court during the following week, the public will know who the speculators have been all along. The firms going bankrupt must be thoroughly audited to determine whether other criminal activity has been taking place, such as laundering dirty money from illegal narcotics transactions, flight capital, and other violations of applicable law. The Federal Reserve must be prevented from extending any credit lines of bail-out assistance to the hedge funds and investment banks that are caught red-handed and thrown into insolvency by this operation. 

It is estimated that this package of measures will reduce the price of gasoline by about 40-50% within two weeks, and by 65-75% over six months.  

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