NOPEC: Hillary tries more populism
Sen. Clinton today said she supported a pending proposal in the Senate to remove OPEC's antitrust exemption:
“We’re going to go after OPEC which remember is a monopoly cartel. There’s nothing free-market about it. They sit in some conference room a couple of times a year and decide how much oil they are going to produce and how much they are going to charge for it. So lets change our laws so we can sue them on anti-trust reasons.”
Legislation to do that has been around since 2000. The problem: OPEC is made up of countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Venezuela. If they were sued for price-fixing and their US assets were threatened, they might decide to seize US assets abroad or constrain production and ratchet up oil prices to see who would blink first.
Legislation to allow the Justice Department to pursue litigation against OPEC has been pushed by Sen. Herb Kohl since 2001. Obama's campaign notes that Clinton has never been a co-sponsor before. (See statement after jump).
Now, of course, she's trying to campaign as a populist.
Obama, by the way, hasn't been a co-sponsor either, during his four years in the Senate, and has never taken a position on the idea.
From the Obama campaign:
Bill Making Oil-Producing and Exporting Cartels Illegal Has Been Introduced In All Four Sessions of Congress Senator Clinton has Been in the Senate—She Has Never Cosponsored the Bill. Sen. Kohl introduced the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act, S. 879 on 3/14/07. The bill is described as “A bill to amend the Sherman Act to make oil-producing and exporting cartels illegal.” There are 13 cosponsors, Senator Clinton is not one of them. In 2005, the bill was introduced by Sen. DeWine; there were 16 cosponsors, Senator Clinton was not one of them. In 2004, Sen. DeWine introduced the bill and there were 14 cosponsors, Senator Clinton was not one of them. In 2001, Sen. Kohl introduced the bill; there were seven cosponsors, Senator Clinton was not one of them. [S.879, 2007; S. 555, 2005; S. 2270, 2004; S. 665, 2001]
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Comments (1)
Hillary Soprano is just your average person. She wears dress from WAL MART. She has Chelsea do her hair. Her shoes are from Sears. Yes sir she is just a regular "JOE SIX PACK"