Free the Oil -- and Other Slick Tricks ( Debra J. Saunders )

townhall.com ^ | August 07, 2008 | Debra J. Saunders

[kellynla]

Earlier in the presidential campaign, when John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a summer holiday on the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax, Barack Obama dismissed the tax vacation as an election-year gimmick that offered financially squeezed families "just pennies." I wrote that, unlike Clinton and McCain, Obama "stood tall in opposing the gas-tax holiday."

Now we know why. Obama must have seen the gas-tax holiday as chump change in the wondrous store of campaign gimmicks. When Obama panders, he panders big-time. Witness his proposed "emergency energy rebate" that -- on the heels of this year's $600 per taxpayer stimulus package rebate sent to taxpayers this year -- promises additional $500 checks for American workers or $1,000 per family "as soon as this fall." (Is there an income cap for how Obama defines eligible "working families"? The campaign did not get back to me on that by my deadline.)

To hear Obama, the check is practically in the mail. Obama argues that his plan is fiscally responsible because he would pay for it by levying a "reasonable" tax on oil companies' windfall profits. The candidate has pointed to Exxon Mobil's record profits -- $22.6 billion in the first half of this year -- to justify his raid on its earnings.

Less reported, Investors Business Daily editorialized, are the record taxes Exxon Mobil paid in the same period -- $61.7 billion. Also, "Exxon made a dime on a dollar in 2007. The oil and gas industry as a whole made 8.3 percent, compared with 8.9 percent of all U.S. manufacturing." So why whack Big Oil?

According to Stanford economist John Taylor, who is a McCain adviser, raising taxes on oil companies likely "will raise the price of gasoline."

[kcm.org]

All President Bush needs to do is sic the CFTC on Goldman Sachs and BP and gas stations will be giving away freebies to buy gas at their stations. hehehe

[ChiefJayStrongbow]

You’ve said the same thing in just about every message thread that relates to oil. Please explain what you mean. What did Goldman Sachs and BP do exactly?