Wherin I very nearly sound like a liberal

Gas prices. One word. Ridiculous Now, I'm no economist but I don't think it takes a genius to realize that theres something wrong here. I'm not going to advocate a "gas tax holiday" like Der Rodham and Mc Cain are either. No, I'm going to advocate for something far more drastic.

As much as I hate government meddling in, well, anything, It's time for them to step in and take appropriate action and what they can do requires no tax payer funding either. First, they need to, through use of Anti-Trust laws, put a temporary cap on Oil company profits. Second they need to drop the National speed limit down to 65mph. These two, either by themselves or combined will have a significant impact on fuel costs.

By capping oil company profits that make investment and speculation in oil as a traded commodity less attractive and will slow down trading in oil futures and speculation. Prices should drop. By lowering the national speed limit to 65mph, and it is proven, increases fuel economy of the cars we drive so we use less fuel to get from point A to point B and since we then use less fuel, demand goes down and fuel prices also go down.

These may be considered drastic measures, but these are drastic circumstances especially from an economic standpoint. With more and more of our hard earned cash going into our fuel tanks it leaves less and less to spend on other consumer goods and services. I don't know about you, but I can live with a 65 mph speed limit.

The time to drive 60 miles at 70 mph is about 52-1/2 minutes. The time to drive 60 miles at 65mph is about 55-1/2 minutes. That makes for a total additional drive time of 3 minutes to go 60 miles. Big deal. My fuel economy at 65mph is about 27mpg. My fuel economy at 70mph is about 23mpg. With an 18 gallon tank I can drive 486 miles at 65mph and 414 miles at 70mph. Thats an extra 72 miles, or 2.6 gallons of gas saved driving at 65mph which, at todays fuel price is just over $10.00! My extra 3 minutes of drive time is worth that $10.00 savings!

Good grief, I almost sound like a bleeding liberal saying all this but I am looking at all this from an national economic standpoint and what would be best right now, short term, for our country. The current price of gas is doing no one any economic good and if fuel prices keep climbing, we all stand to lose.