Enron Loophole

Below is a YouTube post from Olberman’s show on the Enron Loophole. You will probably be quite pissed off after listening to it. Hey, it’s the way we do business in our good old U.S. government. This time it’s a bit of GOOPER sleaze, but the Dems are in there just as bad. To me the real depressing moment comes in trying to track down the vote on the Enron Loophole.

In a very real sense, no one voted for it. No one voted for the damn bit of law that is adding about $65 to the cost of a barrel of oil. I digress on oil for a moment. At $135 a barrel, take off $15 for the value of a shitty dollar. Now we’re at $120 a barrel. Take out what refiners think is the otherwise reasonable cost for a barrel, that’s about $60. Take $60 from $120 and you have $60. That $60 dollars is the cost added by hedge fund commodity trading that is unregulated by the CFTC per the Enron Loophole. Crudely, we are all paying about $2.20 a gallon to ineptitude(Bush) and speculation(traders).

Okay back to the loophole. No one voted for it because the underlying bills were included by reference in conference into a larger omnibus appropriation bill. The conference report was voted on, but they always pass because no one reads it all–too big and everyone just wants their little bit of pork to be in the bill. Yes, the H.R. 5660 bill for CFTC Modernization (it has the loophole in it) was sent by the House to committee and it died. There was no subsequent House vote. And in the Senate, it’s counterpart, S. 3283 made it to first reading and died. Then it’s time to get the money for everything at the end of 2000. Okay in conference, suck in HR 5660 and it pulls in its counterpart from the Senate, 3283. It goes in the bigger bill HR 4577 and its Senate version. As soon as 4577 makes it out of conference it goes the president, he signs it and it’s an Act. The Omnibus bill of 2001 was probably signed by Bush, it could have been one of Clinton’s last signings. It does not matter, it was going to be signed so the Feds could stay afloat. So no one voted for it and no one voted against the damn thing that has doubled our gas cost. Note Kiethie-poo does not discuss this part.

I may have a bit or a piece wrong, I’m rusty on following bills. However, I think what I have stated is a reasonable summary. If not, someone please provide all the details. Our Congress, our Presidents, we are so screwed, so fucked. Now why have any of us ever voted to return anyone to office? The real problem is not the loophole, but how we got the loophole. So how do you feel about your Senators and Reps now? They kind of suck don’t they. What did anyone expect, they are career politicians making public service into a job-with retiement benefits.