Windfall Tax for Oil Companies Blocked by Senate Republicans
In an effort to address oil market speculation Democratic leaders attempted to pass a bill that would tax the 5 largest oil companies' windfall profits from $4 per gallon gasoline.
The bill was blocked by Senate Republicans who stated that energy problems couldn't be fixed with taxes. The Democrats only got 51 out of the necessary 60 votes to overcome the Republican filibuster.
Senator Byron Dorgan, D - N. Dakota, was quoted as saying "Americans are furious about what's going on" with oil company profits and referring to oil markets as "an orgy of speculation".
They (big oil) will only pass such "tax penalties" on to the consumer, FURTHER raising gas prices. The dems will probably like to INCREASE gas taxes on consumers too.
...the oil companies are only raking in record profits, haven't they suffered enough? /sarcasm
Well, Republicans are against taxes, I suppose, so surely they'd be against raising taxes and would embrace plans to reduce them. Right?
"Separately, Democrats also failed to get Republican support for a proposal to extend tax breaks for wind, solar and other alternative energy development, and for the promotion of energy efficiency and conservation."
Yeah, they're shameful industry whores, a cult of irresponsibility and greed.
Ahhhhh and his beloved party are probably right about the companies passing the taxes onto the consumers, if the bill allows for it. But since their solution is just to let oil companies run roughshod over the environment because the companies ask to do so, I haven't much regard for their position. We can see whose bottom line their interested in, and it borders on treason.
If this is all supply and demand spurred on by market speculaters then past profits shouldn't impact gas prices. I'm not saying they won't try but they wouldn't be able to pull off a supply and demand BS line about it.
P.S. Market speculaters are scum. They're the reason my favorite comics went from $0.50 to $3.00.
I rarely see inflation as a possible reason for such high gas prices. Our dollar buys much less than it use to and gasoline is no different. Obviously I am not an economics major but it seems inflation is often forgotten. Could someone tell me if I am right or wrong?
Hundreds of millions of people struggle and suffer daily to enrich a small group of oil executives who are already rich beyond most people's wildest imaginations.
That this blatant tyranny apparently causes no offense to these Senators' sense of morality is equally beyond imagination.
I honestly don't see how you fix a national debt and give value back to the dollar without taxes. Of course, they're high enough as it is. What do I know? Lets all move to Norway...they have the strongest economy in the world anyway because they've moved passed oil so they just sell it to everyone else and watch countries like our fight wars over it. They're laughing.
The oil companies know there is no substitute for oil and they are going to profiteer off this fact till the government puts them in check. That will never happen with Dubya in power. Regulate the oil companies. Put them in check or they will continue to rape the consumers for as long and for as much as possible. It's illegal for gas stations to profiteer off gas shortages, why are the big corporations allowed to do it? It they won't come into line and stop, nationalize the oil companies and take them away from these fascists and put them on trial for treason against the American people. They have held the country hostage before and they are trying to do it again. Shut them down, they obviously can't be trusted.
it was blocked for a good reason. anyone remember jimmy carter?? he got a windfall tax passed and look what happened in the 70s, gas shortages, long lines at the pumps and then some.
"The White House said the United States was “paying a price today for decades of Democratic opposition and regulatory obstacles to increasing domestic oil production,” as President Bush’s spokesman Tony Fratto put it. “Instead of populist votes that would do nothing for gas prices, we need to allow domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways,” Mr. Fratto said, in an apparent allusion to the idea of exploring in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge"
In the House, meanwhile, Republicans pushed for consideration of a bill offered by Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas that Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican minority leader, said would offer real solutions to the country’s energy problems.
Mr. Boehner said the Thornberry bill “will open new American oil refineries, invest in alternative energy sources and increase environmentally safe exploration of untapped oil resources in the United States.” Mr. Boehner was apparently referring to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“Where Democrats refuse to lead, Republicans will,” Mr. Boehner said, saying that Republicans would offer a series of petitions to try to force the Democratic House leadership to move on Republican proposals"
Are we supposed to be impressed by the opinion of George Bush's spokesperson? Nothing credible's come from that podium in years. Bottom line still seems to be that Republicans want to work with the oil companies who are gouging us while Democrats don't. Theirs may be a path of least resistance, immediate gratification, and better-lined pockets, but it's hardly leadership.
I remember the 70's and the 80's. The 70's we had an oil embargo courtesy of opec but that was pre-Carter. I don't remember paying more than $1.30 per gallon in the 80's and that was for about a week.
Carter served most of his term in the '70s, not the '80s. And the oil embargo caused the crisis, not any taxes. You need to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching Bill O'Rielly, they're liars.
