Hey, he is a politician (surely you know what they are like) and he is doing his current job! If you really want him to be a Republican or a Tea Party fellow, you need to either follow him and his statements or disown him and get on with life. He is not your understanding Tea Party fellow - but he is a good politician! Understand the difference and allow for same.
“Well, as a short-term emergency measure, IMHO this actually may not be a bad idea. Many people are buying out of genuine need, but I’m sure there’s also some “panic buying”, the way we saw people lining up for gas on 9/11 for fear of a spike in gas prices. If the order can ease that a bit until the gas stations start getting resupplied on a regular basis and the ones without power get their pumps working again, it might make the situation a little easier to handle in the meantime. “
Suppose you’ve got two days worth of gas left when you wake up this morning, but today’s your day to buy. This system forces you to buy gas today, rather than wait till tomorrow.
***
If they let the stations charge whatever they want, we might be better off. If I had to pay 10 or 20 bucks a gallon, I wouldn’t waste gas on discretionary driving. If I could make a fortune delivering gas around here, maybe I’d do this for a couple of weeks. Maybe there’s a faster way to sell the gas, but at a few cents per gallon of profit, no one’s going to bother.
Instead, the government is going after a few “gougers”.