March 22, 2007
One Ongoing Victim…
…of the media is the oil industry, for example,
Higher gas prices had Dean Reynolds of ABC wondering on March 12. “[A]ll of this leads to questions about oil company profiteering,” said the reporter during “World News.”
yet,
But a resounding “No” came from energy analyst Bill Paul, who told viewers that companies are only “charging what the market will bear” and are not profiteering.
While oil companies may profit greatly, they also pay taxes – an average of 39 percent, compared to a 33-percent tax rate for other industries. “[O]il companies have paid in taxes more than three times what they earned in profits” between 1977 and 2004, according to Jonathan Williams of the Tax Foundation.
Governments receive a windfall of profits from oil revenue – $158 billion from Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon Mobil payments in 2005 alone. On top of that, the government collects taxes directly from consumers on every gallon of gasoline sold.
California’s consumer prices are even higher, not due to oil company greed, but because state excise taxes are the second highest in the country by 2% and California exerts environmental based regulations on the industry that drive up the costs for both the oil companies and gas station owners.
So don’t blame the oil companies, blame the gubmint and its durned greed for taxes and regulation of private industry.
One Future Victim, of not only the media but also Hollywood supersizedstar Al Gore, could well be not only America, but the entire world.
http://hardastarboard.mu.nu/wp-trackback.php?p=641
March 22nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
The MSM and the Dems are not going to stop until they get some sort of windfall profit tax on big oil and then drive the price up to 5$ and $6 a gallon so we can suffer like the Europeans do. After all that is their socialist design and agenda and big oil is one of their main targets!
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:51 pm
I don’t like the gas prices we have, but there are so many factores involved that the media thinks they have to simplify it by simply blaming whoever they don’t like.
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Ken –
That will not only punish big oil and make driving a lot more expensive, but it will effect transportation costs as well, thereby commuting those costs to the consumer via significant inflation on all products. The resultant drops in sales will create massive unemployment and effectively do away with all the good accomplished by the Bush tax cuts.
If the Democrats can’t nail us one way, they’ll do it another way.
Shoprat –
Since the left (therefore the MSM) hates the oil industry and since they aren’t interested in the truth when it doesn’t meet the needs of their political agendas, the oil companies are just what their mad doctor ordered.
As I wrote in my response to Ken’s comment, I also see the domino principle effect of driving gas prices up on the rest of the industries whose bottom lines lie in retail. Heavily regulating and taxing the oil companies is the best way to screw the rest of the U.S. economy, a goal the liberal-run Democratic Party has made a mission out of.
June 9th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
T Mobile Ringtones
[...]
June 9th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Motorola Ringtones
[...]