In that year, she was addressing the Dems' (and George McGovern's) striving to tax wealth, and Ayn Rand's response was "nobody has asked the only relevant question that should be raised to this proposal: BY WHAT RIGHT?!" This phrase needs to be dusted off and used again and again as this group of demagogues start making their threats and spitting their venom.
She will spin her remarks to mean that if she were running Exxon, she would take the money and yada, yada, yada.
You hit it. The only relevant question is "By what right?" Any other questions -- "What effect will this have on our oil industry?" -- "How would this impact our economy" -- would only begin a debate about the effects of this action, and that is not the point. The only point is that government has no right to confiscate the profits of the oil industry no matter how large. We Republicans should be able to articulate the pro-freedom viewpoint without sounding like penny-pinching national accountants or lesser socialists than the Dem's.