Whose windfall profits shall we tax?
The US Senate, in it's ultimate wisdom, has decided that it needs to consider imposing a "windfall profits" tax on the profits of big oil companies. That is a ludicrous proposition on a number of levels.
Level #1 - the Federal goverment makes an 18.4 cent per gallon profit on every gallon of gas that you and I buy.
Level #2 - the State government makes an average 18.7 cent per gallon profit on every gallon of gas that you and I buy. The state of Minnesota takes 22 cents per gallon out of our pocket.
Level #3 - the oil companies make a paltry 7.4 cents per gallon profit on every gallon of gas that you or I buy.
Level #4 - read Amendment X's most excellent post on the circumstances that led us to be in this predicament. It is Economics 101 and is a must read for any and all of our representatives in Washington DC.
Hopefully now we can put to rest the meme that it is "big oil" that is profiting from these near record high gasoline prices. Then we can get around to doing something that will make it less painfull to the consumer. And no Amy, adding more regulations to the already burdensome regulations already in place is not going to do that. A good start would be for the states and federal governments to repeal (even temporarily) the sales taxes that they impose on customers and thus take care of their own "windfall profits".
posted by The Lady Logician at 6:57 PM permalink
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