Michelle Bachmann recently promised $2/gallon gasoline when she is President. The price that she suggests isn't really the problem for me. That she implicitly asserts the President can deliver on such a promise isn't either. What is the problem is that this promise completely contradicts the basic (stated) philosophy of the Tea Party: government should stay out of the marketplace and allow it to regulate itself. The only intellectually consistent stance that any person holding such a philosophy can have with respect to the price of gas is the following: the price of gas is whatever the market will bear and government should not take any steps to influence the price of this or any other commodity.
