Windfall Profit and feel good politics

Government loves money, there’s no joking about that one… and when someone else besides them is raking it in, they get REALLY jealous and start up the “windfall” noise machine to validate the draining of corporate profits “for the people”.

With gas edging $4 a gallon in the US, the topic of the month of May for Presidential Primary season is how to stick it to the man, to make it “fair” for Joe Schmoe on the street. Here is where they play word games. “Fair” is political speech for “it’s time to play Robin Hood!”

Hillary Clinton and John McCain share a plan (while Clinton rides right over it with her added bonus plan of a profit tax) that would repeal the federal 18.4 cent/gallon tax on gasoline which is somehow supposed to save the average American citizen a TON of money. Here’s the thing… they don’t ever GIVE money back or stop taking it, it’s all smoke and mirrors. They may stop collecting one specific tax, but behind the curtain they’ll raise other taxes on similar commodities by a few cents here and there until they’re back where they started… leaving us in EXACTLY the same situation. The only difference being, the dumb masses will be smiling all the way to the voting booth feeling that something was accomplished. Not to mention artificially dropping prices on fuel will only INCREASE demand on the same supply, thus making the issue worse than it already is.

Here’s where Clinton leave McCain’s house and crosses over to hold hands with Sen. Obama… the Windfall Profits Tax. Somewhere in the history of the United States is suddenly became the job of the federal government to tell people and businesses when they hit the wall and were making “too much money”.

Congress is waving the caution flag at the oil industry warning them that heavy taxation on “excessive profits” is on its way (which is funny due to the fact that they’re already raking in 35% from corporate income taxes). Congress seems to think that heavily taxing something will bring in MORE and cheaper fuel for the Americans when nothing could be further from that reality. Carter enacted a windfall profits tax on “Big Oil” in 1980 and the net result from his brilliance was a two fold decrease in domestic oil production from 3% to 6% and a doubled increase in imported oil from OPEC from 8% to 16%. Genius, pure genius!

We have plenty of oil to tap here in the US to begin our process of weening ourself from OPEC and other foreign sources as well as to begin to find ACTUALLY sustainable (not just renewable) fuel sources, problem being that MOST Americans scream bloody murder when you tell them you’re planting an oil rig 200 miles off shore near their beach condo in Florida, or that you’re planning on using a region of Alaska and might upset the migratory patterns of a moose (or alter the habitat of some blind ferret with 8 legs).

Stealing profits from a corporation and then expecting them to invest more of what they now lack, is completely backwards.