While the media continues to blame the big oil companies for gouging U.S. motorists as they collect record breaking profits, the windfall profits raked in by the government in the form of energy tax revenue actually dwarf the oil companies' jackpot.
The press sounded the alarm last year when the largest U.S. oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp, announced profits of $36 billion. But according to the Tax Foundation, the biggest price gouging profiteer was the U.S. government, cashing in to the tune of $54 billion in oil and gas taxes.
"Tax collections on the production and import of gasoline by state and federal governments are already near historic highs," the think tank says. "In fact, in recent decades governments have collected far more revenue from gasoline taxes than the largest U.S. oil companies have collectively earned in domestic profits."
Since 1977, federal and state governments have collected more than $1.34 trillion in gasoline tax revenues in inflation adjusted dollars. That's "more than twice the amount of domestic profits earned by major U.S. oil companies during the same period," the Tax Foundation says.
Still, despite government tax gouging on oil industry revenue, Democrats like Sen. Charles Schumer want to raise energy taxes even more - complaining that oil company profiteering is simply just unconscionable.
Isn't the tax on gas a fixed amount? If so, the Gubment take on a gallon of gas is less percentage-wise as the price goes up - and if so where were the whiners when gas was 99 cents per gallon?
Don't forget that the government also takes about 1/3 of their "profit" in the form of corporate taxes.