Obama's tax on oil companies

[jreeves]

man, this is great.

it shows Obama is actually the candidate supporting the working people with a real plan to help deal with the soaring energy costs.

both hillary and mccain supported the pandering gimic of a gas tax holiday which any economists will point out really only results in a give away to oil companies.

Barak's plan will actually put the tax on the oil campanies...and if you read the details only applies when the price of oil is over $80 rofl: not at $20).

It sure is refreshing to see a candidate who understands economics.

Thanks for bring up this topic guys.

You really must not have read this part of the article.

The answer to the second question, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), is that the 1980s windfall profits tax depressed the domestic production and extraction industry and furthered our dependence on foreign sources of oil.1

CRS also found the windfall profits tax had the effect of decreasing domestic production by 3 percent to 6 percent, thereby increasing American dependence on foreign oil sources by 8 percent to 16 percent. A side effect was declining, not increasing, tax collections. Figure 1 clearly shows that while the tax raised considerable revenue in the initial years following its enactment, those revenues declined to almost nothing as the domestic industry collapsed.


Windfall profit taxes drive down domestic production which weakens our domestic supply. Also, tax revenues are actually decreased not increased. But do tell me how this is refreshing???

 

[jreeves]

dude the more i read this, the more i almost have to think it's a joke if it weren't for you other posts showing it fits with your overall worldview ...but then again most of your posts appear to be well thought out.


are you familiar with the concept of windfall?

lordy lordy

duh...of course there wouldn't there be calls for a windfall tax when oil was 20 bucks a barrel??? that's pretty much the point of a windfall tax...

um and then yurt you say the oil campanies haven't done a dam thing to deserve the profits that it all because of the market.

hello...if one was going to do a windfall tax...that sure sounds like the perfect place for one.

The answer to the first question is that over the past 25 years, oil companies directly paid or remitted more than $2.2 trillion in taxes, after adjusting for inflation, to federal and state governments—including excise taxes, royalty payments and state and federal corporate income taxes. That amounts to more than three times what they earned in profits during the same period, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and U.S. Department of Energy.

Seems to me this is a good thing, why do you want to decrease tax revenue?

 

[doeton]

I do think that gasoline demand is inelastic - but not perfectly inelastic. Like you've said, gas hitting $8/gallon would likely cause people to cut their "luxury" driving (vacation road trips, teens joyriding). But there's a certain amount of "necessary" driving people won't give up unless prices really skyrocket.

...

I think our domestic gas retail market is pretty competitive, and the 8% ROS is about the right percentage to justify doing the business. Unfortunately, all domestic gas retailers are at the mercy of their high input costs.

well argued...we just disagree about the elasticity of gas...i think if you look at europe where gas is taxed shxt out of...people drive less and drive smaller cars...and have better mass transit.

 

[doeton]

The answer to the first question is that over the past 25 years, oil companies directly paid or remitted more than $2.2 trillion in taxes, after adjusting for inflation, to federal and state governments—including excise taxes, royalty payments and state and federal corporate income taxes.Seems to me this is a good thing, why do you want to decrease tax revenue?

a - your applying the situation of 20 years ago today.

b - moving the u.s. towards to new fuel source, mass transit and smaller cars are all good things in the doeton's view.

c - you do have a point about increasing dependence on foreign oil...but i'd say the benefits outway the magnitude of that effect.

 

[Gunny]

man, this is great.

it shows Obama is actually the candidate supporting the working people with a real plan to help deal with the soaring energy costs.

both hillary and mccain supported the pandering gimic of a gas tax holiday which any economists will point out really only results in a give away to oil companies.

Barak's plan will actually put the tax on the oil campanies...and if you read the details only applies when the price of oil is over $80 rofl: not at $20).

It sure is refreshing to see a candidate who understands economics.

Thanks for bring up this topic guys.

Of course because it stands to reason that the government taxing oil companies has ANYTHING to do with the middle class, and we know oil companies won't just jack their prices up even higher to make up the difference; which will impact the middle and lower classes the hardest.

 

[Gunny]

gee rav, i thought you were going to grow up.

right, hill's plan includes the windfall...duh

but it also included the gimic of the gas tax holiday...heard of robbing peter to pay paul?

When are YOU going to grow up? Obama's "plan" makes unrealistic claims.

 

[Gunny]

I've been meaning to ask you, what the heck is a doeton?

A troll.

 

[doeton]

Of course because it stands to reason that the government taxing oil companies has ANYTHING to do with the middle class, and we know oil companies won't just jack their prices up even higher to make up the difference; which will impact the middle and lower classes the hardest.

i apologize for you missing the explanation i already provided on that...but i'll be happy to provide it again.

supply of oil is static in the short term...it can't be changed...the oil rigs are all going at full steam currently. yeah, the long term with price changes more oil could be brought on, but not in the short term.

thus the price is dependent on demand...and the price will rise to what consumers will pay...which is why it was pandering to go with the gas tax holiday.

since any reduction in the price brought on by the gas tax holiday would be gobbled up the suppliers who would simply increase the price to the point where demand equals supply.

The windfall profit tax on the other hand. Hits the suppliers before it hits the consumers.




that's the whole point gunny if the oil companies could hike up the price after the tax...why wouldn't they do it before the tax????

 

[doeton]

A troll.

takes one to know one

 

[doeton]

think about it folks.

demand for oil is skyrocketing right now.

why?

well there's war in iraq - think humvees and tanks.

there's a cut in supply - because of iraq (hello gw)

and on top of all that

There's china and india suddenly able to afford gas.

it's all demand folks.

 

[maneal]

Look, oil companies aren't make A LOT more money because the price is up (they are taking advantage of it somewhat). They are making more money than ever before because we are using more than ever before.

The only things that Liberals know to do are raise taxes and blame President George Bush. Creating a tax because Exxon made some more money then Obama wanted them too is unnecessary. What we should be doing is downsizing the Federal Government, giving back rights to the states (for some things), and cut unneeded spending. If we are going to make a tax every time a company makes a healthy profit, we might as well strip the constitution and create state-run oil company and a socialist nation....

 

[jreeves]

think about it folks.

demand for oil is skyrocketing right now.

why?

well there's war in iraq - think humvees and tanks.

there's a cut in supply - because of iraq (hello gw)

and on top of all that

There's china and india suddenly able to afford gas.

it's all demand folks.

You have one part of the equation, but not the other, supply. If we tax domestic oil companies, then we'll be getting our oil from overseas. Which will further strain the world markets and drive up gas prices further. Not only that we will have cut tax revenues because of the decrease in American oil. Every which way you look at everyone loses, consumers, American oil companies, the federal government, state governments....etc.... Well the only people to benefit from this are foriegn oil companies... But do tell yourself how crafty and witty Obama's plan is. It's not like this wasn't tried previously, it failed miserably.