Democrats Propose Draconian Windfall Profits Oil Tax

Timothy Birdnow

Democrats attempt to seize oil profits. According to The Hill:

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/205085-dems-propose-reasonable-profits-board-to-regulate-oil-company-profits

"Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits.

The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.

The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding "a reasonable profit." It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress."

End excerpt.

But who is the biggest oil profiteer? Big Government, that's who.

In 2010 Exxon-Mobile alone paid $9.8 BILLION dollars to the Federal treasury, and close to $59 billion over the last five years. That is just one oil company. http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2011/04/27/gas-prices-and-industry-earnings-a-few-things-to-think-about/

And while the taxes on gasoline AT THE PUMP amount to about 66 cents http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/What-percentage-of-gas-prices-go-to-taxes/o7X4rEAbxk2X4FIbWF2Xkw.cspx per gallon (assuming a $4 gas price) the fact is that the taxes on the sale of GASOLINE at the pump is the final step in a series of taxes, starting with exploration, drilling, transporting, refining, and then finally selling. And it is subject to draconian regulations, including "designer" blending to meet EPA standards in different areas.

Exxon-Mobile made less than 8 cents on every dollar of gas sold, so the total profits were 32 cents on $4 gasoline, or about HALF of what the government got!

We need a board to control goverrnment profits, not private business profits.

Part of the reason gas and oil prices are high is because of government regulation and restriction. If free market principles applied we would have cheap energy, as we are only now learning that we are literally swimming in the stuff. But our government, captive to the Gang Green and their environmental lobby, won't let us go get it, and are actually trying to make the cost of doing business MORE expensive for energy companies to drive prices even higher.

What we need is a tax on Congress. Every time Congress raises taxes their own "special use fee" should be raised. When they lower taxes the fee should be dropped. As things stand now, our wonderful protectors in government can cheat private citizens (and a company is nothing more than a collection of private citizens) without personel repercussion. That has to change.

There was a time when a group like this would have been run out of town on a rail; they are advocating socialism. We have become so used to socialists telling us what to do that we don't even find this particularly interesting.

I've got an idea; why don't we tie the profits government reaps to the profits Big Oil reaps? If Exxon-Mobile earns 32 cents per gallon then government can only tax 32 cents per gallon?

The real windfall is on the government side. Strange how they want to take it all.