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Monday, March 31, 2008

Obama’s New Ad Calls For “Windfall Profits Penalty” On Oil Companies

Because another big, fat tax on the oil industry will surely make fuel prices go down.

Here’s reality: When oil companies are taxed it isn’t really the oil companies that pay it.  It’s us.  Every single penny the oil companies pay to the government in taxes makes its way down to that per gallon price we see at the pumps.  The more the oil companies are taxed, the higher that price goes.  Period.

Here’s another reality: Oil is all we’ve got to keep this country running.  As much as we might want it to be otherwise, there isn’t enough ethanol or wind energy or hydroelectric energy in the whole world to replace all the energy we get from oil.  There just isn’t, so until some new technology or energy source comes along we’re stuck with oil.  And making it more expensive with more taxation isn’t going to help anyone.

Obama is either so incompetent and economically illiterate that he doesn’t get this, or he does get it and he’s lying to us.

Comments

Here we go....nationalization is on the way.


Communism is evil

Chief RZ on March 31, 2008 at 03:19 pm

Even Paul Wellstone knew that companies ultimately pay no taxes--that their customers do.  That should tell readers who remember him how far gone Obama is--and I believe Hillebeast has also called for the same thing.

Get your cardigan if either of them is elected; there will be a new Jimmuh Cahtuh malaise.

Bike Bubba on March 31, 2008 at 03:36 pm

This shows the ignorance of liberals once again!



A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.

dougee on March 31, 2008 at 04:58 pm

It is simply beyond my comprehension that anyone so ignorant of basic economic facts of life would presume to think himself qualified to be President of the US and leader of the free world… or that anyone but an ignoramus would vote for such a charlatan.


“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

Bat One on March 31, 2008 at 04:59 pm

Actually, no ignorance is involved; it’s simply “the dictatorship of the proletariat”, piece by piece.


If you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it.

robert108 on March 31, 2008 at 05:10 pm

Obama needs to RESIGN!!!!

Zsa Zsa on March 31, 2008 at 05:38 pm

Maybe we should levy a “windfall profits” tax on his wife’s salary; she got a $200K raise in one year.


If you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it.

robert108 on March 31, 2008 at 05:52 pm

Robert, I think that had to do with Obama getting a big earmark for her employer.

This is a classic example of the government mismanagement.  They restrict the supply of an item, in this case restricting both development of domestic sources AND refinery capacity.

That causes a shortage which leads to the price rising.

They turn around and demonize the oil companies for what the government is at fault for and demand more power to regulate the industry which will ONLY MAKE IT WORSE.


What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.


The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on March 31, 2008 at 06:43 pm

Robert, I think that had to do with Obama getting a big earmark for her employer.

Exactly; it was a payoff, or to put it another way, a windfall.  It had nothing to do with her on the job performance.  If you’re going to tax oil companies for actually supplying what people want, and for doing it efficiently, then surely we can tax away Michelle Obama’s unearned windfall, right?

I totally agree with your economic analysis, btw.


If you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it.

robert108 on March 31, 2008 at 06:59 pm

How about a windfall profits tax on shysters like Obama, the Clintons, John Edwards, John Kerry......

Kevin on March 31, 2008 at 07:21 pm
Avatar for tom

Oh, Oh, Obama has been talking to ODorgan.

tom on March 31, 2008 at 08:04 pm

Oh, Oh, Obama

Wasn’t that a song by Ritchie Valens?

I knew a Democrat, Obama was his name
Since he left me I’ve never been the same

O-bama! O-bama!
O-bama! O-bama!



A troll is someone who only wants to stir up trouble, not have an honest debate.  Some signs that a poster is a troll:
* Dodges questions from other posters * Refuses to give sources
* When one of its arguments is shown to be false, either ignores the proof or moves the goalposts.  Heh. (From the LGF faq)

Proof on March 31, 2008 at 08:18 pm
Avatar for R. Hogan

Typical knee-jerk reaction from liberals who have no basic understanding of economics, profit/profit margin. Much talkin but nothing to say.
Don’t stop with the oil companies.  Hit the greedy Hollywood so-called character actors and drug companies.  Include the greedy overpaid sports players. The lamestream talking heads who deliver dribble disguised as news.  And definitely hit the bureaucrat/politicians who have never worked a 40 hour week but get paid for it.

R. Hogan on March 31, 2008 at 10:19 pm

It is scary how many people at NDSU that I have talked to agree with what Obama is saying here.  Very scary!!!



A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.

dougee on March 31, 2008 at 10:27 pm

Chief

Here we go....nationalization is on the way.

Then you should be outraged at what Hank and Ben are doing....lets give the federal reserve some “sweeping new powers”


“We have a dollar that’s adjusting and I am for a strong dollar.....
Our dollar doesn’t buy as many barrels of oil as it used to and so therefore it’s more expensive for the American people”..... Bush 3/12/08

Mark D on April 1, 2008 at 06:54 am

9 cents on the dollar. Since when was that an “excessive” profit? States make on average 27 cents and Feds 31 cents on each dollar of gasoline sold. Why are Democrat morons demanding that they surrender THEIR excessive profits?


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on April 1, 2008 at 07:05 am

Robert108, here’s a correction that I think you will agree with; if indeed Mrs. Obama got her big raise shortly after her husband got earmarks for the hospital, I believe that would rise to the level of a “bribe,” suggesting that while our government might do well to pay for Mr. Obama’s room and board, and that of his wife, that the lodgings ought to be decidedly less upscale than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Sing Sing and Alcatraz come to mind.

Bike Bubba on April 1, 2008 at 07:32 am

BB: Sure, after we tax it away and redistribute it to the people who paid for it in the first place.


If you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it.

robert108 on April 1, 2008 at 07:35 am
Avatar for rkane

I am not defending Obama, just the idea he’s trying to get across.  I think the general idea is correct.  When the rest of the economy is in recession, yet the gas companies are seeing increased and even record profits; case in point…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22949325/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/04/29/bcnshell129.xml

The price of the barrel is going up, so the price these companies pay for their crude oil is going up, yet somehow they still seem to be able to squeeze out high profits.  There has to be something done to limit these companies, even though there is no monopoly, how does a record profit at the expense of the customer different than a monopoly??

Just my $0.02.

rkane on April 30, 2008 at 12:13 pm

rkane, not quite.  Most big oil companies control the process from the well to retail, so they’re not buying a large portion of the oil they sell at all, but rather paying to keep their own wells moving.  Given that they bought and drilled those wells, they earned that profit quite well.

You want to limit the profits of the oil companies?  Here you go: http://www.cannondale.com and http://www.trekbikes.com.  Keep it out of the political process if you would, though.

Bike Bubba on April 30, 2008 at 12:31 pm

When the rest of the economy is in recession,
yet the gas companies are seeing increased and even record profits; case in point…

Real economics doesn’t work that way in a free country, only a govt-controlled economy, where profits are arbitrarily determined.  In our economic system, a company’s profits(and losses) are due to their business choices.  It is possible for a company to do well, even when other sectors are not, and it is possible for a company to fail, even in an economic boom.  The relationship you believe in doesn’t exist.
BTW, we are not in a recession.
The profit margin of the oil companies hasn’t increased, so their increasing net profit is due to good management and selling more product; in other words, there are no “windfall profits” in the oil industry.
On the other hand, the govt is enjoying windfall tax profits; maybe they should cut their tax rates on the oil companies.


If you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it.

robert108 on April 30, 2008 at 12:41 pm

Not only that Robert, poor government policy is the largest controllable reason that gas prices are so high.


What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.


The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on April 30, 2008 at 01:39 pm
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