This rebuttal is just muddled thinking

Last week Andrew Sullivan wrote an article for Newsweek saying we shouldn't be so hard on Obama. The prez. has a long-term view of things so his actions may not make sense in the short term.

This week David Frum offers a rebuttal, giving the conservative line of why Obama must go. It is rare for an article in Newsweek to have me muttering so much. There were so many times I wanted to answer back to say Frum was blaming Obama for something the GOP is doing or to say I didn't agree with the conservative ideals behind Frum's assertion or to say Frum's thinking is just muddled. I could write a long post about my disagreements, but it isn't worth my time. I'll only point out a couple things.

Frum says the proper (market driven) way of reducing oil consumption is to tax it. This allows each person to respond to the increased prices in their own way. I suppose I could agree with that. Frum complains that Obama directly intervenes in the marketplace by subsidizing solar energy (such as the company that failed), canceling the pipeline from Alberta to Texas, and not approving drilling projects in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

My reply:
* Who is it that's blocking taxes in Congress?
* Voters would have a strong reaction to raising the gas tax (even though I personally think it is a good idea).
* We shouldn't intervene in the marketplace? The why don't we end all those subsidies to oil companies who are making billions in profits.
* Even with a gas tax alternate forms of energy will need subsidies for a while and with climate change looming it is worth our future to invest in those things now.
* Sometimes environmental protection takes place over jobs and profits.
* Obama's hand was forced on that giant pipeline by the GOP.
* Obama just opened up huge areas of the Gulf for drilling.
Newsweek commenters (who don't like Frum's reasoning any better than I do) add:
* So if my gas taxes are too high, I can move closer to my job -- and sell my house that is underwater?
* The Almighty Market is not the answer to everything.
* Raising taxes on oil also interferes in the market.

On to the other example. Frum rails against infrastructure projects because that would cause more of us to work directly for the government. That's not good because it makes government larger, those employees can't be fired, and government sets the terms of employment.

Yeah, that is a rich ore to mine. But I won't. I'll only point out that on the next page Frum rails against Obama's big stimulus package because it didn't have enough spending on -- infrastructure.