Maxine in Charge

During yesterday's Congressional hearings on oil prices, Maxine Waters threatened oil companies with nationalization. Or at least that is what she wanted to say but she's too stupid to remember the right word. Watch this:

Maxine Waters Video

Is this still the United States? Is this still a capitalist economy? I'm beginning to wonder....

Update: Here's a NYT story about the hearings.

To be sure, oil prices have never been higher. Though they eased on Thursday to $130.81 a barrel, down $2.36 on the day, they are up 30 percent in the last two months. And just as sure, Democrats in Congress are itching to take action — perhaps by taxing so-called windfall profits of oil companies, perhaps by allowing the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to be sued in American courts under antitrust laws.

But neither those initiatives nor a portfolio of others currently under consideration are likely to reduce prices at the pump. And so the lawmakers and the oil titans, well aware of this reality but also mindful of the roles they are expected to play, ran through a familiar script.

Actually, most of the things being proposed would reduce supply and therefore raise prices. These hearings are a farce and we can only hope that the likes of Maxine Waters never get to actually implement the things they claim to want.