Senate Republicans blocked a proposal today that would tax the windfall profits of the country’s largest oil companies. The GOP put together 43 votes, which left the Democrats 9 votes short of what they needed to break a filibuster and bring the proposal to a vote.
Democrats had urged Congress to pass the bill, with Sen. Byron Dorgan (Dem – ND) claiming, “Americans are furious about what’s going on.” But the GOP wouldn’t budge, claiming that the bill was not the answer to the current energy problems which are leaving taxpayers shelling out more than $4/gallon.
The bill would have imposed a 25% tax on profits considered “unreasonable” compared to profits several years ago. An exemption would have been available to oil companies that invested profits in alternative energy projects or refinery expansion. The bill also would have rescinded oil company tax breaks granted under the Bush administration — worth about $17 billion over the next 10 years.
GOP Senators opposed the plan, saying that increasing domestic production is the answer, not taxation. Republicans leaders instead hope to revive a plan, which was voted down last month, to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and in state coastal waters.
I’ll agree that increased taxes are not always the answer. But I do find it amazing that oil companies are among those getting tax breaks at a time when taxpayers are hurting at the pump. Of course, you and I both know that rather than take a hit in their own bulging pockets, Big Oil would simply pass along that tax to consumers.
Sigh. I have no answers. Do you?
I like that there were incentives for developing alternative energy. Too bad that didn’t pass. Honestly, until we move away from oil altogether, this problem will keep popping up. There’s no real solution for the short term, so we should focus on the long term. Instead of spending time and money to open up additional drilling, we should develop renewable energy technology and hybrid technology to a point where it is viable. Especially since the foundation is there. In the amount of time it would take ANWR to become viable, we could develop alternative energy solutions that would drastically reduce our dependence on oil.
Get rid of the ethanol-subsidy program — this is causing more problems than the price of oil.
The thing about oil/gas is just that the price is right there in your face every day. It’s not that an increase of roughly a third (over the past year) is THAT huge an additional amount you’re having to shell out.
For most of last year, I drove 41 miles to work every day — roughly 400 miles a week, or almost 20 gallons in my Jeep Cherokee (with the 4.0-liter six). At $3.00/gal, that’s 60 bucks a week; at $4.00, it’s $80. How big a deal, really, is an extra 20 bucks a week, for someone with a full-time professional job? It’s not trivial, but it’s not huge, either — I could easily save the money back just by brown-bagging my lunch instead of eating at the cafeteria.
No, it’s just that the oil companies are an easy target, because they always make money when the price of crude goes up (their margin is pretty constant, so if cost of goods sold goes up, so does the bottom line). Everyone hates them, so politicians always go for the quick pander; rail against “windfall profits” (whatever those are) and grandstand. I’m not a Republican, but they’re right on this one.
Urb
it’s simple – INCREASE taxes at the pump from 20c/gal to $1/gal so that we can rid ourselves as a country off our oil addiction! We are sending $100/person each month to the middle east to support our addiction! It’s economics 101, tax consumers to reduce demand. I just hope our country smartens up and our politicians grow some balls before its too late!
If you think the oil companies are getting tax breaks, you need to go to Exxon Mobil’s annual report and take a look at how much they pay in taxes (including income and special oil-company excise taxes). Last time I looked, the oil companies are paying far more to Uncle Sam than the net income they realize.
Just goes to show you that the government doesn’t have a clue as how to solve this problem. That or they really don’t care and are just going through the motions in order to coax the less informed to vote them back into office term after term. What we need is some regular “Joes” in D.C. and not these silver spoon fed lawyers who make our decisions for us. If gas gets to high for them, all they have to do is vote themselves another pay raise. Let’s clean house, Democrats and Republicans, and start from sctatch.