*WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says it’s time to roll back “billions of dollars in tax breaks” for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and development. *
Hmm I wonder what happens when you roll back tax breaks and the oil companies pay more taxes. I bet the price of everything will go down and the oil companies will be anxious to just pay the taxes out of their profits. I also bet they will be super duper excited about bringing more jobs to the US.
Its funny how they understand “you scratch my back…” when it comes to elections and offering people jobs to drop out of races but cant, or rather wont , see how that works in the real world outside of the walls of Harvard.
Hell there’s so much humor in this I’m not even going to bother to quote everything. This should be entertaining for some time.
Well its not when every small business ( community action group) you have ever been connected with gets their money from the governemnt ( the people) and George Soros.
Oil Industry Financial Performance and the Windfall Profits Tax** Summary** Over the past 10 years, surging crude oil and petroleum product prices have increased oil and gas industry revenues and generated record profits, particularly for the top five major integrated companies (also known as the “super-majors”): Exxon- Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, and Conoco/Phillips. These companies, which reported a predominant share of those profits, generated more than $100 billion in profits on nearly $1.5 trillion of revenues in 2007. From 2003 to 2007, revenues increased by 51%; net income (profits) increased by 85%. Oil output by the five majors over this time period declined by more than 2%, from 9.85 to 9.63 million barrels per day. Being largely price-driven, with no increase in output, and with little new production resulting from increased oil industry investment, many believe that a portion of the increased oil industry income over this period represents a windfall and unearned gain, i.e., income not earned by any additional effort on the part of the firms, but due primarily to record crude oil prices, which are set in the world oil marketplace. Numerous bills have been introduced in the Congress over this period to impose a windfall profits tax (WPT) on oil. Most of the bills were introduced in the 109th and 110th Congresses, after the enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which provided oil and gas industry tax incentives, in addition to the industry’s traditional tax subsidies. An excise-tax based WPT would tax only domestic production, and like the one in effect from 1980-1988, would increase marginal oil production costs, which theoretically could reduce domestic oil supply, and raise petroleum imports, making the United States more dependent on foreign oil, undermining goals of energy independence and energy security. By contrast, an income-tax based WPT would be more economically neutral (less distortionary) in the short-run: sizeable revenues could be raised without reducing domestic oil supplies. Neither the excisetax based or income-tax based WPT are expected to have significant price effects: neither tax would increase the price of crude oil, which means that refined petroleum product prices, such as pump prices, would likely not tend to increase. In lieu of these two types of WPT, an administratively simple way of increasing the tax burden on the oil industry, and therefore recouping some of any excess or windfall profits, particularly from major integrated producers, would raise the corporate tax rate by, for instance, repealing or reducing the domestic manufacturing activities deduction under IRC § 199. This deduction is presently 6% of a firm’s net income) and is available generally to all domestic manufacturing businesses (service firms are excluded), including almost all oil firms. Repealing this deduction for the major integrated oil companies, and freezing it at 6% for the remaining qualifying oil companies is estimated by the Joint Committee on Taxation to generate about $10
billion over 10 years.
Yep, he’s right up there with Sarah Palin who pushed through Alaska windfall-profits taxes on oil companies so she could send an even bigger check to all state residents than they got already. Damn socialists and their re-distribution of wealth.
Lessee…Chevron is operating at less than 5% margin (a bit over 10% operating) and laying folks off…any future tax will be passed on to consumers, and dividends will be reduced (yeah, your Grandmom depends on these…)
Good idea to tax oil cos. now.
More progressive blather; this is just another method of taking from those who do and redistributing to those who don’t.
BTW, I believe Apple’s margin exceeded 15% these past few years…why not tax them more? Please don’t dare tell me that CRTs and batteries and the chip industry are good for the environment.
I read the article, where does Obama indicate that rolling back tax breaks on oil companies will lower costs?
I was commenting on his failure to mention that all of this will be passed on to the consumer. Something he forgets to mention, but is fully aware of, quite often. Of course that only applies until he can get price control on every business he sees as evil. That is his “I have a dream” moment.
I read the article, where does Obama indicate that rolling back tax breaks on oil companies will lower costs?
I was commenting on his failure to mention that all of this will be passed on to the consumer. Something he forgets to mention, but is fully aware of, quite often. Of course that only applies until he can get price control on every business he sees as evil. That is his “I have a dream” moment.
Your ability to project thoughts/ideas/policy goals onto Obama and then respond to them accordingly is a very effective debate tactic.
"generated more than $100 billion in profits on nearly $1.5 trillionin sales"
That is only a 6.6% profit margin. That’s certainly not unreasonable unless you believe that profits are the root of all evil.
IMO - that number in itself doesn’t tell me a whole lot, but this does…
For the entire 2000-2006 period, the oil and gas industry’s ROE averaged 7 percentage points higher than manufacturing’s ROE, while for the 1985-1999 period, the oil and gas industry’s ROE was only 2 percentage point higher. By this measure, the industry’s recent high profits, measured both in absolute terms, and relative to
ROE, suggest the presence of excess or windfall profits
I read the article, where does Obama indicate that rolling back tax breaks on oil companies will lower costs?
I was commenting on his failure to mention that all of this will be passed on to the consumer. Something he forgets to mention, but is fully aware of, quite often. Of course that only applies until he can get price control on every business he sees as evil. That is his “I have a dream” moment.
Your ability to project thoughts/ideas/policy goals onto Obama and then respond to them accordingly is a very effective debate tactic.
And the OP may want to read up on how oil prices are determined.
I read the article, where does Obama indicate that rolling back tax breaks on oil companies will lower costs?
I was commenting on his failure to mention that all of this will be passed on to the consumer. Something he forgets to mention, but is fully aware of, quite often. Of course that only applies until he can get price control on every business he sees as evil. That is his “I have a dream” moment.
Your ability to project thoughts/ideas/policy goals onto Obama and then respond to them accordingly is a very effective debate tactic.
All it takes is a little research and just listening to his own words. Its all out there if one chooses to open their eyes and ears.
I read the article, where does Obama indicate that rolling back tax breaks on oil companies will lower costs?
I was commenting on his failure to mention that all of this will be passed on to the consumer. Something he forgets to mention, but is fully aware of, quite often. Of course that only applies until he can get price control on every business he sees as evil. That is his “I have a dream” moment.
Your ability to project thoughts/ideas/policy goals onto Obama and then respond to them accordingly is a very effective debate tactic.
All it takes is a little research and just listening to his own words. Its all out there if one chooses to open their eyes and ears.
And fill in any blanks with your own preconceived notions of what you think Obama wants…
I read the article, where does Obama indicate that rolling back tax breaks on oil companies will lower costs?
I was commenting on his failure to mention that all of this will be passed on to the consumer. Something he forgets to mention, but is fully aware of, quite often. Of course that only applies until he can get price control on every business he sees as evil. That is his “I have a dream” moment.
Your ability to project thoughts/ideas/policy goals onto Obama and then respond to them accordingly is a very effective debate tactic.
All it takes is a little research and just listening to his own words. Its all out there if one chooses to open their eyes and ears.
And fill in any blanks with your own preconceived notions of what you think Obama wants…
