Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats are outraged by sky-rocketing gas prices. Well, maybe “outraged” isn’t the right word to use here. “Frightened” might be better. Remember, Obama appointed an Energy Secretary who was on record as wanting us to pay the same for gasoline as they’re paying across the pond; an Energy Secretary who has recently said he isn’t really working at all on bringing gas prices down. So let’s say “frightened.” Obama and the Democrats are frightened that the people of this country are actually figuring out that these high gas prices might be part of a grand design, and it’s a design they don’t like.

What to do? There’s an election coming up! Democrats have made great strides in increasing government dependency during the Obama reign, and they don’t want to see those gains erased by a loss this November followed by a repeal of ObamaCare and other new regulatory monstrosities. They must find someone to blame .. someone in the private sector .. someone or something more closely tied to Republicans and our hated free enterprise system .. upon which to shift the blame. So … here’s an idea! Speculators! Blame the speculators! You have the advantage of knowing that most of the government-educated voters have absolutely no clue what role the evil speculators play in the oil and gas industry, plus the advantage of knowing that the ObamaMedia will jump right on your “blame the speculators” bandwagon.

So last week Congressional Democrats sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission complaining that it hasn’t done enough to rein in speculators. You see, their new toy – the Dodd-Frank bill – charges the Trading Commission with limiting how many crude oil contracts can be held by different banks. Try to figure out that one.

Caesar Obammus also stepped up his rhetoric, resurrecting an idea to “set up a task force to look into speculation to make sure people aren’t taking advantage of the situation on the global oil markets.” Keep in mind that he launched this same task force last year and it “fizzled out.” In other words, there was no egregious fraud taking place in the energy markets. What’s more, there have been numerous investigations of these dastardly speculators in the past – and not one has panned out. Not one has provided the Democrats with the ammunition they need to continue their assault on capitalism.

A once-failed task force and a letter to the Trading Commission … this is how the Democrats are working to lower your gas prices.