Senate Republicans block windfall taxes on Big Oil

That's pretty stupid. It makes for a good sound bite, but it makes zero economic sense. It's half a step short of the government siezing control of those companies. Raise your hand if you want Congress running an oil company. Didn't think so. This would take away every incentive the oil companies have to go out and pump more oil. They're already sweating because high prices are starting to kill off demand. Here's what's going to happen. Idiot commodities speculators, not oil companies, drive up the price. Americans buy Priuses instead of Tahoes (arguably a good thing, but I'll stick to my 6.1l HEMI). Speculators take their profits and the price drops to something more reasonable. Damage (from the oil companies' perspective) done, we use less oil and they make less money. Permanently. The other thing is...as long as they haven't inched up their profit margins, I hold no ill will to begin with. If they made 5 cents a gallon profit on $2 gas, and they're making 10 cents a gallon off of $4 gas, I aint mad at em. The price of gas tripples, and their profits tripple...no big mystery there.

I do like some of the "also would" bits...gouging should be a crime. The speculators do need to be brought under control. But what's this bit about taking OPEC to court? They're a bunch of criminals, sure, but they aren't exactly under federal jurisdiction. That bit part of the bill is just rhetoric.

This is the Senate at its deliberative best-consolidating higher prices for fuels in the future. But they should also place more restrictions on the development of fossil fuels. This two-pronged approach Must be what average voters want, what they're begging for. And finally...we might have a Senate we deserve {having sent them all back over and over}.

Hmm....gas costs too much, so Congress wants to tax the companies that produce it. Anyone else see something wrong with that? Does anyone in their right mind think that will lower the price of gas?

No, but it will please those voters who can't see past the ends of their noses. It smacks of robbing from the rich to give to the poor. The funniest thing is that it wouldn't hurt oil companies nearly as much as advertised. Why? Well, look at what they'll do with the money. Fund tax breaks for companies investing in the development of alternative energy sources. Most of these are oil companies. So they get to make speeches about punishing BP for its alleged greed when all they are really doing is rebranding BP's existing tax break to make it please Al Gore. Even if it passes, it will be a farce.

And how is this tax going to help? It seems clear that the purpose is public posturing to show people that Congress is making the oil companies pay. Might make some feel good, but it doesn't seem to solve any problem.

This is ridiculous. I mean they are making billions of dollars every quarter. Of course it would help to have that money! Money is money and we certainly could use it to pay for something. Republicans are going to have a hard time explaining this to people suffering in this economy. Once again big business wins!

I remember when Dennis Hastert spoke after the republican congress gave the oil companies a huge tax break, only days after they recorded record profits. He said (paraphrasing here) "we HOPE that it will be put toward new refineries." It's not like congress couldn't have made that tax break contingent on new refineries or the development of alternative fuels....right. Hogwash.

These oil companies have plenty of locations to drill, locations that they currently own the rights to. They don't want to drill there yet, because they are waiting for the oil in the rest of the world to dry up - so they can demand $300 (or some other obnoxious amount) a barrel. In the mean time, they will keep pushing their republican friends in government that Anwar is the only place they can find new oil. It is a lie. Additionally, the oil in Anwar isn't enough to put a dent in the current crunch.

More oil doesn't help when you can't refine it.

The Bush tax cut should be taken back.

There should be additional taxes, on profits, to fund new energy alternatives.

There should be tax breaks for alternative energy use.

The Democratic energy package would have imposed a 25 percent tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies, which together made $36 billion during the first three months of the year.

Typical Republicans, the proposed windfall tax proposed by the Democrats they say would not bring down the cost Americans pay at the pump. Therefore, The Republicans demand we continue to allow the top five u.s. Oil Companies to strip the American people of 36 Billion dollars every three months with impunity.

In 2006 the Democrats defeated a number of Republican corporate sympathisers. In 2008 lets take out those remaining Republicans and the Libermans of the democratic party. 36 billion dollors every three months from the American people and the Republicans rail against any and every attempt the Democrats propose to bring relief is muted by the Republicans. We must clean houses in November Democrats.

Maarti, I struggle to know what to say to you, your ignorance is so staggering.

Do you know how much money 36 billion is? According to the energy information adminstration, personal vehicles use 63% of all energy used for transportation, with the rest being used for commercial purposes. That comes out to $25 per month per American for putting gas in your car, and an additional $15 a month to put stuff on store shelves. That's how much profit the five largest oil companies made...combined. I don't know how much money you spent on gas last month, but $25 sounds like about an 8% profit to me. And I only have one car. There are three cars on the road for every American. Think about that number. Eight dollars a month per car is the "staggering greed" of the oil companies. How about we limit ourselves to two cars per family...or one? That'll do a lot more good than this ridiculous farce.

Exxon/Mobil's net income is up 17% compared to last year, even though oil is up, what, 250%? Even though they only made 17% more money than a year ago, they spent 30% more on finding and developing new sources of oil. They spend HALF of their profits on finding and pumping more oil, not the evil, consumer-raping Scrooges you think they are.

Apple's net income was up 36% compared to the year before, even though the cost of computer chips remained largely the same. Is that evil of them? Let's tax computer manufacturers into the stone age, too.

*Those were numbers for the first 3 months of 2008, compared to the first three months of 2007.

Adam Kemp and Matt-313337

Well Matt you conveniently fail to mention that the 17 percent increase in profits for the first quarter of 2008 were on top of record profits for big oil last year when you said the following:

"Exxon/Mobil's net income is up 17% compared to last year, even though oil is up, what, 250%? Even though they only made 17% more money than a year ago,"

It could conceivably appear that I have singled out ExxonMobil and other such companies in my comments. The reality is I am attacking the Republican Party's penchant to always run to the defense of big corporations who are well off at the expense of the common American citizen.

On that point I concede you are right that it is not at our expense the American consumers, because ExxonMobile is an International player and they too take advantaage of the falling dollar. But again, back to your Republicans in Washington, all they do is seek to shield Fortune 500 and perhaps rightly.

Yet, they fail to see where the "Average Joe" is being look out for by Washington.

Is it a perception on the part of folk like me or is it a reality?