Senator Grassley is a Moron

During a teleconference with Iowa reporters yesterday Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) presented his solution to high gas prices: drive less. Now, he's partially right. If we all drove 3% less miles (his recommended driving cut), the price of gasoline would dramatically drop. Of course, lower gasoline prices would encourage people to drive more. (In fact, high gas prices last year led to lower demand, which led to lower gasoline prices, which led to increased demand this year, which led to increased gas prices.) Grassley has even gone so far as to ask President Bush to ask federal employees to drive 3% less, and he has asked his Congressional staff to do the same. This is just dumb. And unnecessary. As gasoline prices increase, consumers will drive less to save money. A 3% reduction (or more) will happen on its own, thanks to market forces. USA Today reported on this last year and this year. We don't need Bush or Grassley to encourage us to drive less.

Audio of Grassley's teleconference here.

Ps. I love the fact that my spellcheck wants to change "Grassley" to "grossly".