Comments on: House Approves New Taxes On Big Oil

Passes $18 Billion In New Taxes On Biggest Oil Companies; Measure Awaits Senate Action

[ov442]

Why does CBS play the GOP game & call this "New taxes" when its a repeal of the Bush/Cheney Giveaways that they pretend are for investments?
$18 billion dollars divded by the # of Oil companies affected, isnt much for each to pay in taxes that they were paying up till the 2005 "Energy Bill" that has done nothing but harm americans & give oil more cash.
However, Exxon-Mobil made $40Billion last year. The others made over $30bill. For the last 7 years of the Bush presidency they have been ROlling in so much profit, these little taxes they have to pay are a drop in their oil wells.
They should be using their PROFITS off consumers to explore new energy sources...ITS THEIR JOB!! ITS WHAT THEY DO! Why should we pay them twice to make profits? Why should we pay them twice to take advantage of us? NO! At ALL times, Shareholders should come second to reinvestment of the company. But i''d say recently, everyone involved from CEOs to shareholders to employees to Oil cartels to the GOP politicians in their pockets have been WELL taken care of by these unGodly profits.
In 2003, Exxon Cheif said to Fortune Magazine "Money is coming in so fast, we dont know what to do with it all"
That puts down the lies by GOP congressmen and Bush/cheney that they need tax money to look for more oil.
If they couldnt make a profit at it, they''d quit. They havent quit in 100 yrs even when oil was $18 a barrel.

[omega39-2009]

In the fall of 2001, corporate lobbyists descended upon Washington, D.C. to try to
turn our nation%u2019s bad fortune to their companies%u2019 advantage. They sought huge new tax
breaks, even refunds of taxes paid in the past. Major accounting firms assisted in the
lobbying, and also redoubled their efforts to market offshore tax shelters to their
corporate clients, even recommending renunciation of their U.S. citizenship. They told
companies, in Ernst & Young%u2019s infamous phrase, that %u201Cthe improvement on earnings is
powerful enough that maybe the patriotism issue needs to take a back seat.%u201D
The loophole-seeking corporations and accounting firms found eager allies among
our political leaders on Capitol Hill and the White House.
As a result of these actions and inactions by our government, corporate income
taxes in fiscal 2002 and 2003 fell to their lowest sustained share of the economy since
World War II. (Only a single year during the early Reagan administration was lower.)
From 2001 to 2003, the Commerce Department reports that pretax corporate profits
grew by 26 percent. But over that same period, corporate income tax payments to the
federal government fell by 21 percent.

[pepperwood2]

The money collected over 10 years would provide tax breaks for wind, solar and other alternative energy sources and for energy conservation. Those companies earned $123 billion last year.

I would like to think that its about time that these outlaws that have been given a license to steal from Mr. & Mrs. America by our Government since the Jimmy Carter days.

If you noticed, just about all the energy, utilites, phone & consumer companies have come up with ways to bilked the people. I don''t know about you by as a senior citizen, It costs me 1000 dollars a month just to try to heat my small house NOW in winter time.

All I hear is how I should save the planet. Use less energy, reduce my carbon footprint. That''s what most of us are struggling to do now, while the biggest contributers are Oil & Energy an they being handled with kid gloves.

They should also be considering higher taxes on beer, alcohol & tobacco. Just look around an you can see what the negative impact is having on us.

I know, I know just where would Hillary & other politicans get the money for half a billion dollars of pork projects, that pollute the planet, for their State? Well guess what I guess they will have to cut down like the rest of us are doing.

Maybe they should get barack to doing the work of the American People. Get it right for a Change.

[ne_patriot7]

"We buy from the companies that DO lower their prices to reflect their savings from not paying taxes, and by that force the greedy ones to either play fair or go out of business."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by pgettys at 08:26 AM : Feb 28, 2008


If you think for one minute, ANY oil company would lower their prices in such a scenario, you are naive beyond belief.. then what do you do genious, order your gasoline a gallon at a time over the internet from Venezuala.?

[omega39-2009]

You want government to really be working for us, and only us? Make them tax JUST US directly.
Posted by pgettys

It''s not the amount of taxes that gives them voice, it''s their obscene political contributions. You know, what you Republicans call "free speech".

[pgettys]

You want government to really be working for us, and only us? Make them tax JUST US directly. Then big corporations won''t have any power over government at all - we''ll have it all. Sure, there will be companies that try and keep what they would have paid in taxes rather than lowering their prices. That''s where the concept of a free market comes in (something liberals don''t get). We buy from the companies that DO lower their prices to reflect their savings from not paying taxes, and by that force the greedy ones to either play fair or go out of business.

Every penny a company spends comes from us, either through product prices or stock investment. When a company pays taxes, it comes out of our pockets.

[jjp735i]

It''s a media hype bill. It does nothing for the people except make it look like Congress is acting on the high price of oil. The bill will not lower the cost at the pump.

If Congress really wanted to do something they would really look into those RECORD profits. Not pretend they are by holding simple Q&A sessions with the oil companies. Those sessions have not once in all history ever uncovered anything. And it''s not because there is nothing to uncover. It''s because Congress is in bed with the large companies for cash. Talk about wh0ring, Congress takes the cake.

[pgettys]

Taxing or not taxing the oil companies isn''t going to change a thing. The oil companies will change their prices to cover ALL costs of doing business - this includes raw materials (crude oil), labor, refining costs, and overhead (which includes every penny of every tax levied on them) - and maintain their target profit margin. That won''t change unless new oil companies are started or move in to give the current bunch some competition.

Big oil is like any other business. If you raise prices to them, they raise their product prices. When corn prices go up, so anything dependent on corn goes up - pork products, cooking oil, etc. Lumber prices rise, so the price of furniture, homes, etc. all go up. Simple economics.

If you raise taxes on big and freeze prices on refined oil products, big oil will cut somewhere, most likely in employee benefits and exploration. That only hurts labor and the country.

The government taxes corporations because we the people don''t want to pay higher taxes. By taxing corporations, they make it look like we''re getting a break, when in fact we still pay the same taxes as if we paid them all. We''re just adding middle-men. And like any good business, those middle-men are taking a cut, or adding a profit margin on ALL of their costs. So, what may have been a 2% tax if levied on us directly becomes a 3 or 4% tax after corporations tack on their profit margins and handling charges.

Like it or not, WE pay ALL of the taxes eventually.

[pgettys]

War for oil? Let''s look at that.

We went to war in Kuwait because Iraq invaded. How much oil did we get out of that? None. Did we get a break on oil prices from Kuwait? No. Did we stick around to run their country? No.

We''ve been in Iraq for 5 years. How much oil have we pulled out of there for free or discounted prices? Zip. Does anyone really believe it''ll get better if we just walk away now? Only people who do not understand those who are willing to blow themselves up for a cause.

We''ve been pulling other countries out of their own messes for over 60 years, since we kept the French from having to learn German in WWII, and all we''ve ever asked for from any of them was a small plot of land in which to bury our dead.

Maybe it was wrong to go to Iraq. Let''s not tear our own country apart trying to decide that, especially when we have now put our youth in harm''s way, and have taken on the responsibility for freeing another country. If we leave before the Iraqis can stand on their own feet, the world will blame all of us, not just Bush. If we finish the job right, we''ll have an ally in a region festering with anti-American hatred.

[mcvet]

I can''t understand the fascist in this nation. They can BORROW BILLIONS of dollars which future generations will have to repay, send those BILLIONS to another country where it is wasted and never blink an eye but take some of the burden off the future generations and lessen the burden of the interest on that massive debt on us but taxing their rich buddies? NO NO we can''t do that!! INSANE!!

[ne_patriot7]

The Headline:
House Approves New Taxes On Big Oil

The story:
The bill would roll back two lucrative tax breaks for the five largest U.S. oil companies.

Just goes to show the bias in reporting by the msm... Rescinding a tax break they never should have gotten in the first place, is NOT imposing NEW taxes on the oil industry. Why the hell should the U.S. taxpayer be subsidizing a multi billion dollar industry that deliberately has curtailed refinery production in order to force higher prices at the pump.

[joyous88]

OUR CRIMINAL PRESIDENT WILL VETO THIS,

Remember the conservative republican MANTRA;

tax the little guy not the wealthy or the corporate

[olebd]

For our services? Invading based on lies and fake evidence and occupying is a war crime. Killing 1.1 million Iraqis was a war crime. Now you want to send them the bill? How sick.

Seek reality.

Posted by AntiZion at 07:21 AM : Feb 28, 2008

I''ll agree with you it was wrong to go in in the first place but now, the Iraqis that are in power are the ones who wanted change in their country. They should have been able to stand up on their on for a couple of years now. We are in that country still holding their hand and not getting anything out of it. Yes, it''s time to start billing them if they don''t make more effort to become self-sufficient.

[antizion]

I will not vote for ANY incumbent. RE-ELECT NOBODY!

18 billion is the cost of 9 day of this oil war (500 million a day)

How patriotic of our blackmailed and bribed congress of perverts. Pathetic.

[antizion]

The sad reality is that you can run a car on water after the water is electrically charged to change the bond angle of the hydrogen atoms. Google Stan Meyer, Puharich and others.

Youtube stan meyer.

[antizion]

They do not pay taxes now. Is that the best congress can do? This is designed to take pressure off congress, manipulate the american people while america is taken down from within by the zionist to hide the theft of 2.6 trillion by the zionist merchants of death.

How about a 100% tax for war crimes and treason?

[mcvet]

I can''''t believe how stupid peloski is. We need to be drilling in Anwar not imposing higher gasoline prices on the consumers. Corporations don''''t pay taxes, the consumers pay those taxes. Lower your standard of living peloski and gore, kerry, kennedy. clinton and obama just spent 250 million(wasted) lets tax that at 50%. I''''m sick of the democrats tearing this great country down. throw the incompedents out and set term limits.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by smilnjackw at 06:57 AM : Feb 28, 2008
+ report abuse

ROFLMAO Sparky WE need that money and rest assured it''s NOT going to lower the cost of gas ONE nickle... Geeeeezzzz YOU freaks seem to NEVER learn.

[mcvet]

It''s ABOUT time!!

[antizion]

What we need to do is start demanding Iraq pay us for our services in oil. Along with all the other countries who we send aid to. Pay us back with oil.
Posted by olebd at 07:16 AM : Feb 28, 2008
========================================
For our services? Invading based on lies and fake evidence and occupying is a war crime. Killing 1.1 million Iraqis was a war crime. Now you want to send them the bill? How sick.

Seek reality.

[antizion]

Nationalize the oil companies globally since they have committed anti trust and monopolistic crime with the blessing of our congress of blackmailed sexual pervert that have been stuffed into Washington.

Hey congress, where is the 2.6 trillion that was stolen from the pentagon budget off. See CSPAN the day before 911. The next day, the evidence was destroyed of the biggest theft in history of Earth.