Posted on 01/20/2012 2:23:36 PM PST by tom h
Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits.
The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.
The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding "a reasonable profit." It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress.
The bill would also seem to exclude industry representatives from the board, as it says members "shall have no financial interests in any of the businesses for which reasonable profits are determined by the Board."
According to the bill, a windfall tax of 50 percent would be applied when the sale of oil or gas leads to a profit of between 100 percent and 102 percent of a reasonable profit. The windfall tax would jump to 75 percent when the profit is between 102 and 105 percent of a reasonable profit, and above that, the windfall tax would be 100 percent. The bill also specifies that the oil-and-gas companies, as the seller, would have to pay this tax.
Kucinich said these tax revenues would be used to fund alternative transportation programs when oil-and-gas prices spike.
"Gas prices continue to rise, creating a hardship for the American people," he said. "At the same time, oil companies are making record profits gouging their customers. This bill would tax only the excess profits and create forward-thinking transportation alternatives."
Specifically, he said the money would be used to fund a tax credit on the purchase of fuel-efficient cars and set up a grant program for mass transit programs when oil-and-gas prices are high.
The bill does not estimate the size of these grants or the amount of money that might be collected through the tax.
Co-sponsoring the bill are five other Democrats: Reps. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), Bob Filner (Calif.), Marcia Fudge (Ohio), Jim Langevin (R.I.), and Lynn Woolsey (Calif.).
I can just hear the howling from Democratic circles.
Ayn Rand please call your office. Wesley Mouch is holding on line one.
How about a reasonable government board to regulate runaway government?
“I am become Barry, destroyer of wealth”.....
Marxine Waters (Socialist, Watts), "If you don't like it, we'll just nationalize the oil industry."
yitbos
Black market time, just like in every socialist society.
Me,me, me, pick me...to be the King of All that is Reasonable! I will divine what is reasonable and what is not.
How bout eliminating all taxes on energy federal, state and local?..
Energy is the “MILK” of any economy..
Chinese bicycle company on line one...
How about a “Reasonable College Tuition Board”?
Mitt thinks he can work with these people.
The Fountainhead was on TCM today. A curious parallel? Patrica Neal is quite the Gal. An earlier show today starred Neal and Ronald Reagan!!! Quite a love triangle!
Sure!
We’ll submit Nan Pelosi’s earnings from her conflicts of interest during the ‘08 spike in gas prices for review.
How about we let oil companies regulate the pay of Dem Commies like the ones proposing this board.
Are we going to have one for google profits and berkshire Hathaway profits? The per share value of the oil companies is a fraction of those.
Congress needs a rational representative review board to kick about 3/4s of them out.
Oh, I agree totally. So much I advise formation of a similar body to cap the obscene profits in Hollywood.
And let’s not forget that Universities are more and more simply Debt Traps For Minorities —they get degrees in major not applicable to any market, then can’t get jobs.
Let’s HELP MINORITIES by ending fed grants for students of such majors.
And then: Ivy League Universities have HUUUGE endowment, right? Hey, too much —let’s tax them over some threshold value.
Fair is fair, right?
How about reasonable Federal taxes on gas & oil? The last time I looked the governmenttook in about 5 times the profit margin on each gal. of gas sold.
This would be much better and would help oil prices to go down. Just make anyone that buys oil futures to take physical delivery of said oil.
These people never learn from their mistakes or mistakes of the past. Something like this was tried back in the 70’s with a cost ceiling on oil. The result was the second gas shortage of the 70’s causing long lines at gas stations.
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