Posted on 04/09/2008 1:11:54 PM PDT by econjack
As long as he is playing the worn-out class warfare card, I suggest that we put a whopping tax on politicians who enrich themselves while in office and double that tax on those who enrich themselves by taking foreign money after they leave office. At least the oil companies provide a useful product.
If anyone deserves a punitive tax, it’s that grifter from Arkansas who made 109,000,000 in the past seven years and produced absolutely nothing of value in the process.
Perhaps someone from the oil industry can correct me if I'm wrong, but refined products like gasoline and jet fuel have a relatively short shelf life before they deteriorate while crude has a virtually infinite shelf life.
How about a tax on windfall profits from shady land deals?
“I propose a windfall profits tax on politicians.”
Perhaps you meant “politician hot air” tax. That would really raise a lot of tax money.
Yes, sort of like the Liberals who forced the Tobacco companies to advertise to the Public to quit smoking and how harmful that smoking is to their health. It all boils down to doing penance for their evil sins.
The Oil companies should just stop producing immediately, because they already only make a 10% profit on what they produce. A windfall tax would stop them from being able to afford exploration and R&D in drilling technology.
Imagine the uproar from the public if they can no longer get fuel because the Government shut down the Oil companies by forcing them out of business?
Exxon's total revenues during the past 12 months = $361.71 billion.
Exxon's net income after tax = $40.61 billion
I'm no fan of Obama's tax proposal, and Exxon's profit margin is approximately 10%.
I wonder how many teacher’s retirement funds hold oil company stock?
You are correct. Distillates are no longer stable when they are separated from their molecular companions. Their shelf life is very short and the octanes/ketanes drop rapidly, regardless of the container they are stored in.
The idea of storing refined distillates in mass quantities is outright dangerous if not ridiculously difficult.
My family (four kids aged 2 - 8) drove from the DC suburbs to Squam Lake in NH in 1979 during the Carter induced gas crunch. We hat metal gas cans tied to the roof of the station wagon (the old kind with the faux wood paneling on the side). I think if a bird had pooped on our car, a mile of interstate would have blown up...
Profit margins for oil companies are 8 or 9%, lower than many other industries.
I don’t believe that oil stocks have shot up in price over and above the performance of stocks in general. And I don’t know that these companies have paid out abnormally large dividends.
So, tax the oil companies and investors will take their money elsewhere.
This is probably tenth-grade economics - and therefore over the head of many liberals. :)
“The economics of the situation tells me that some part of their profits will be used to produce more oil. On the other hand, sending a new tax to Washington does nothing to increase the supply of distillate fuels.” Having been in the business for over 30 years, I can tell you that in our company, all of the profit is put back into the ground—we even have to borrow money to drill with. The Windfall Profits Tax created a shortage that accelerated the price 10 fold—after the price went up, we overdrilled, which caused a depression in the Oil Industry for 20 years. We lost most of our infrastructure Including about 400,000 jobs. With no infrastructure, costs went up dramatically because everything has to be rebuilt. When they enacted the first windfall profits tax, we imported 35% of our oil. Now we import 60 to 65%. So this idiot, who complains about being dependent on foreign oil wants us to be even more dependent.
What we're witnessing here is a repeat of the economic conditions of the 1970s -- complete with all of the ancillary issues that seemed to be unrelated but were actually very much a part of the whole landscape.
The parallels are actually quite striking.
Late 1960s: Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" programs result in massive Federal entitlement obligations even as the nation is involved in a costly military campaign in Vietnam.
Early 2000s: The Bush administration will be remembered as a period that saw the largest increase in discretionary and entitlement spending in U.S. history, including a new Medicare prescription drug benefit whose estimated costs are obsolete even before it is signed into law. This occurs even as the U.S. is involved in costly military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
1973: The nation's first "energy crisis" unfolds. I use quotes around this term because it wasn't really an energy crisis at all . . . it was a financial crisis that was rooted in the devaluation of the U.S. dollar as foreign investors and foreign commodity producers recognized the idiocy of the Great Society / Vietnam paradigm and understood that the U.S. government had every intention of paying for such idiocy by inflating the U.S. dollar.
2005-08: The nation is mired in another "energy crisis" that is really no more an energy crisis than the previous ones (1973 and 1979). Again, this "energy crisis" is nothing more than the natural consequence of a debased currency that is directly attributable to delusional economic policy (waging costly military campaigns even as domestic spending spirals out of control).
1970s: "Global cooling" hysteria drives the environmentalist movement in this era, in which excessive government regulation is seen as a necessary measure to help ward off an environmental catastrophe. The real motivation behind this silliness is the desire on the part of government to diminish the nation's standard of living in a manner that makes it seem like a necessary/noble thing to do.
2000s: "Global warming" becomes the latest nonsensical environmental fad -- complete with all of the ignorant celebrity endorsements and abject hypocrisy associated with it. The real motivation behind this silliness is the desire on the part of government to diminish the nation's standard of living in a manner that makes it seem like a necessary/noble thing to do.
Late 1970s: The costs of these delusional economic policies are ultimately paid through massive inflation of the U.S. dollar.
Late 2000s: The costs of these delusional economic policies are ultimately paid through massive inflation of the U.S. dollar.
Anyone else see a trend here?
You sure haven't given any evidence of that. LOL.
How about a windfall profits tax on lawyers?
Sounds familiar. I did the same thing (1971 beetle, two 5 gallon cans), but I was driving from my parents’ house in Seattle to college in Pasadena, at the end of December 1973.
I had heard that all of the gas stations along Interstate 5, in Oregon, were closed. I got lucky, there was one open, in the 300 miles of Oregon, and I didn’t need to use the gas from the cans.
Add both of these to the list of Things That Can Never Happen.
That is why they are not in long term storage, but instead, the storage system acts as a buffer, so refined fuels first in are first out (to the pumps, for example).
Unlike crude, which is typically stored in relatively simple artificial caverns in salt mines, the refined fuel storage would most likely be in a 3D “honeycomb” reservoir, like an immense combat aircraft fuel tank.
Optimally inside a mountain with the “input” located high up on one side, and the “output” located below the tanks on the other side. The product would slowly work its way “downhill” through parallel low pressure conduits. Heavily grounded against static electricity throughout the process. By doing so, it would also limit corrosion from the tiny amount of water in refined fuels.
If set up appropriately, entire “fuel cells” the size of large petroleum storage tanks, could be removed from the system and replaced with only marginal effect on the flow of product.
what makes this empty suit, o-wampa, think that this tax will not be passed on to the public.
My four year old grandson could figure that out, but then again he does not want to waste his play time with such stupid statements.
How much does government at all levels make off each gallon sold?
Excellent points.
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