Political Quotes

“I ask the Senator another question. When we ask the people in the energy business, why are prices out of control, they say it is the market mechanism, market forces. There are two things I find interesting. Our common experience says when gasoline prices go up in a town, they all go up at the same time in lockstep. When they come down, they trickle down at the same rate. You don't see competition in pricing that could be found in any other market. Second, the oil companies consistently guess wrong about supply. That is what the Federal Trade Commission said. Why would they guess wrong? They make more money when they guess wrong. These oil companies are now having record profits and they are saying: We just did not have pipeline capacity; we were not prepared for reformulated gas, for clean air; we made a mistake. Look at what resulted from the mistake. It did not result in their being penalized. It resulted in their being rewarded with some of the highest profits they have seen in 10 years. I cannot think of another company or another industry in America that can guess wrong so consistently and profit from it time and time again. Vice President Cheney recently he saw no evidence of price gouging. Mr. Vice President Cheney, come to Chicago, come to Illinois. Take a look at what happened in a 30-day period. The price of gasoline went up 50 cents a gallon. No price gouging?...”