And remember, this image doesn't include the Federal take.
The government makes more money from then all of the oil companies combined - and without the risk. All so they can make matters even worse with their tinkering.
Posted on 06/10/2008 6:54:35 PM PDT by BloodOrFreedom
Saved by Senate Republicans, big oil companies dodged an attempt Tuesday to slap them with a windfall profits tax and take away billions of dollars in tax breaks in response to the record gasoline prices that have the nation fuming.
GOP senators shoved aside the Democratic proposal, arguing that punishing Big Oil won't do a thing to lower the $4-a-gallon-price of gasoline that is sending economic waves across the country. High prices at the pump are threatening everything from summer vacations to Meals on Wheels deliveries to the elderly.
The Democratic energy package would have imposed a 25 percent tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies, which together made $36 billion during the first three months of the year. It also would have given the government more power to address oil market speculation, opened the way for antitrust actions against countries belonging to the OPEC oil cartel, and made energy price gouging a federal crime.
"Americans are furious about what's going on," declared Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. He said they want Congress to do something about oil company profits and the "orgy of speculation" on oil markets.
But Republican leaders said the Democrats' plan would do harm rather than good -- and they kept the legislation from being brought up for debate and amendments.
On world markets, oil prices retreated a bit Tuesday but remained above $131 a barrel. Gasoline prices edged even higher to a nationwide record average of $4.04 a gallon.
At the Capitol, Democratic leaders needed 60 votes and they got only 51 senators' support, including seven Republicans who bucked their party leaders. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, a state tied closely to the oil industry, was the only Democrat opposing the bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Could this be right?! A Democrat-originated piece of legislation that actually seems legitimate and that I might actually agree with?! Something must be wrong here!
Good. We’d have a lot more oil if it wasn’t for the Democrats and the “environmental” lobby that supports them.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
You must remember one fact: CORPORATIONS DON’T PAY TAXES. Will raising taxes on corporations lower the price at the pump? Maybe in liberal TV-lala-land, but nowhere else.
Are you being sarcastic or obtuse... I can't tell...
Your comment is in direct contradiction to your name.
I’m guessing Big Oil will be pumping it’s political donations into Democrat coffers anyway.
Sorry. Bad attempt at sarcasm
You must be on the wrong forum if you agree with a wind-fall profits tax ala Jimmy Carter.
Right. They just wind up passing the tax off to the consumers by raising the prices to offset the loss
DUMB DEMS.....what you TAX you get LESS of.....IDIOTS.
Is the “plan” where the Dems realized that this tax would drive up the cost of gasoline?
Not a good thing right before an election.
LOL! I’ve done that. It sucks bec of the endless follow ups telling you the same thing over and over.
It will pass. Take care.
For the record, what's a 'windfall profit'?
I guess the Dems must have forgotten the Jimmah Carter attempt to do this in the ‘70s...and the long lines to try to find gas at the pumps as the supply dwindled severely. It would be even worse today, with the oil companies simply shifting oil supplies to China and India, which would be happy to take all they can get.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
By the way, “Big Oil” is really “Little Oil.” The major oil companies only control 7% of the oil on today’s market. The other producers are the governments of OPEC countries, Russia, Brazil etc.
I know. I’m sitting here smacking my head against my desk. I had a feeling this would happen, too, after I posted and saw your comment...Oh well
Grouped By Vote Position YEAs -—51
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Grassley (R-IA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs -—43
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Reid (D-NV)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Wicker (R-MS)
Not Voting - 6
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Graham (R-SC)
Kennedy (D-MA)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL)
Sentences like that is why I don't take FOX News any more seriously than MSNBC or CNN.
LOL. This is just a way for dems to get more money to spend. It's a TAX INCREASE. Who do you think actually pays the taxes? The corporations pass it right on to the consumers. Taxing companies is one of the best "hidden taxes" the gvt has come up with. The consumers stupidly think that the corporations are paying the tax. In fact, the stupid consumers are in the form of higher costs for anything that uses oil. But it lets the government get away with raising taxes without howls from the taxpayers.
So if you like paying more for gasoline, plastic, heating oil and every product that uses them in production or transportation, and if you like Nancy Pelosi having all that extra money to spend wisely, by all means endorse this bill.
It's a scam like the global warming cap and trade bill. Tucked into the that bill was a provision that the feds got to auction off the credits to companies. Guess who got the money. Nancy Pelosi and her buds. Guess how much? 3.3 Trillion dollars. Guess who pays? The consumers to whom the companies pass on the costs. So you and I pay 3.3 trillion dollars more for stuff that uses energy in production. And Nancy and her bud promise to spend the money wisely.
And remember, this image doesn't include the Federal take.
The government makes more money from then all of the oil companies combined - and without the risk. All so they can make matters even worse with their tinkering.
They impose windfall profits tax, will they also be subject to the windfall profits they are raking in, in the form of taxes, and at a higher amount then the "profits" of the oil companies?
So, the oil companies get slapped with a tax, so they simply raise the cost of the product to cover the extra tax, so who pays it, really?
Lastly, the majority of oil company ownership is shareholders, so who gets to pony up extra money if the oil companies are not allowed to raise the cost of their product?
This is nothing more than an attempt to further erode the economy, to get a better shot at power in Novemebr. The iraq thingy blew up in their faces (we won), so they need to find another dead horse to beat, to show the ignorant masses that they truly, truly care.
Just ask shmucky).
ONLY a moronic, dumbass DemocRAT thinks that you can ALWAYS fix a problem by first taxing it. ONLY A DUMBASS DEMOCRAT. We’ve got too many of them in this country.
I don’t know why Smith (R-Ore) calls himself a Republican.
Done!
I understand Byrd and Kennedy not voting, what are the others excuses?
If big oil has been getting rich why has not one new refinery been built in the US in the last 32 years?
The long line at gas pumps will happen this week in Oklahoma City because a Homeland store is lowering their gas price to $2.00. Police will be busy that day doing traffic control.
Probably some of them were “paired” by agreement, which is fair enough. McCain and Obama, for instance, I would guess. But there seem to be two extra Democrats who were not paired. I expect hillary is having a snit.
Thank you sir, you are a gentleman, a scholar and a patriot.
LET’S PUNISH CONGRESS AND THE SENATE FOR OBSCENE PROFIT
TAKING AT THE EXPENSE OF THE AMERICAN TAX PAYER!!!
Fox News with Chris Wallace aired a special on the corruption that is “earmarks” in the U. S. Congress. Chris trotted out three examples of where politicians used earmarks to profit individually, or provide funds to their family members, using the taxpayers’ money to do it; millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. And this was only three examples. These congressmen have not been punished, penalized, sanctioned, demoted, or voted out of office for their misdeeds. One congressman that Chris interviewed, who has made attempts to clean up the practice of earmarks, has found himself ostracized and removed from the oversight committee. The senior ones “esplained” it to him. Don’t mess with the system, corrupt or not!
Because they have been prevented from doing so by all the enviro-whacko red-tape....
“The Democratic energy package would have imposed a 25 percent tax ....”
Could this be right?! A Democrat-originated piece of legislation that actually seems legitimate and that I might actually agree with?
The “sin” of the oil companies is that they sell a whole lot of oil products; they make a smallish margin on each gallon sold but they sell a heckuva lot of gallons. Does that make them criminal? I guess it does if you’re a Democrat.
I wondered why my state was keeping quiet about gas prices, and after much digging, found out that the extra dollar rise in price was socking an extra quarter of a billion dollars into the state's greasy palm annually...
Wonder why I didn't read that on the front page of my local or state papers? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
LET’S PUNISH CONGRESS AND THE SENATE FOR OBSCENE PROFIT
TAKING AT THE EXPENSE OF THE AMERICAN TAX PAYER!!!
Mr. Smith! Where are you???
Gee, I wonder why the emphasis in the government schools is on "self-esteem" and "tolerance" and "diversity", but not on facts or logic?
Could it be a conspiracy to produce stupid tax slaves, who can be gulled with ease?
To quote an ancient Freeper saying:
"It's like taking candy from a stupid baby."
Wouldn't that violate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment or does that clause not apply to the federal government?
Check this link for the State of California's breakdown:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/margins/index.html
Notice that the compilers try to disguise the actual profit (which is about a dime a gallon) by lumping it in the category "Refinery Cost and Profits".
Last time I checked, a cost and a profit was NOT the same category...
Welcome to FreeRepublic. You signed up on May 2, 2008, it is great that you dove right in to the action. Perhaps you may want to complete your home page. Tell us a little about yourself.
It is just so easy to condemn industry and tax the heck out of them. Where would that stop? Would just oil companies be taxed, electrical service companies, real estate companies, cement manufacturers, contractors? What about Hollywood picture makers, TV station owners, computer manufacturers?
Does it end with oil executives or all rich people?
We go down a very dangerous slope when the government intrudes into private businesses and the people will pay at the end of that game.
They donate to both sides.
BloodOrFreedom
Since May 2, 2008
Quite frankly, it would be amusing to for the Republicans to offer a counterproposal: a windfall profits tax on democrat enterprises such as Hollywood, Planned Parenthood (abortion tax anyone?) and all of the assorted perversions that the dems support.
Probably be able to pay off the national debt.
Quite frankly, it would be amusing for the Republicans to offer a counterproposal: a windfall profits tax on democrat enterprises such as Hollywood, Planned Parenthood (abortion tax anyone?) and all of the assorted perversions that the dems support.
Probably be able to pay off the national debt.
Guys, I can vouch for BloodorFreedom. Check post #8—this was supposed to be sarcasm. He’s a good conservative.
You can check his other postings if you don’t believe me.
BoF—just put a /s/ after sarcasm—it’s how we let each other know we are being tongue in cheek.
And you think no one reads your posts! /s/
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