xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx TODD BUCHHOLZ, COMMENTARY: isn't it time to break up OPEC? President Reagan broke up the Soviet Union, President Clinton tried to break up Microsoft and Congress has been gunning for Martha Stewart. Let's aim a little higher than our flower gardens, shall we? What is OPEC's purpose anyway? The cartel takes money from working families around the world and then gives it to royal families across Arabia, Africa and Latin America. Every time OPEC decides to jack up prices by a dollar, it grabs more than $10 billion from consumers' pockets. Can anyone defend this? Have we forgotten that in 2000 OPEC helped push the U.S. into a recession? And let's not talk about gas lines in 1973 and '79. Rather than today's $28 barrel oil, a real market would clear closer to $15. Who is OPEC, anyway? A motley crew. Twenty percent of their output comes from Iran and Libya alone. If you throw in Iraq, the number crawls closer to 30 percent. No wonder they call fossil fuels dirty. Even non- terrorist OPEC countries are desperate to squeeze up the price of oil, because they've squandered all the revenues they captured from the 1970s onward. Now, it's true, Russian and Mexican oil wells are offsetting some of OPEC's power. And that is good. But it's not enough to help American families. If Iraq is public enemy number one, OPEC is trying pretty hard to be public enemy number two. I'm Todd Buchholz. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
