Specter Says Rising Gas Prices May Lead to Tax on Oil Profits

[Army_of_One]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...PMsdg&refer=us


`Obscene' Profits

Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said President George W. Bush should call oil company executives to the White House and tell them he'll support a new tax on their profits unless they lower prices.

What exactly is an "obscene profit" in a capitalist society??? I thought in our society we aim for "obscene profits". One year one of my funds returned 43% interest. I wonder if the gov't would deem that obscene and take some of the return from me??!?!?!?

This just can't be good.

[Highwayman]

‘Obscene' Profits?

Oil company profits are around 9% which is lean compared to other companies. The profit on a gallon of gas is about 7 cents, or less than half of the Federal gas tax we pay at the pump. Who’s gouging us more here?

If the Democrats really want to help us out with the price of gas repealing the tax would be a place to start. Relaxing EPA standards that increase production costs would help too. But isn’t it the Democrats that argued for a higher tax to encourage us to conserve?

[Bubba]

ExxonMobil (XOM) had a $36 billion profit last year. Here are some returns for XOM from Yahoo Finance;

Qtrly Earnings Growth (yoy): 27.20%
Return on Equity (ttm): 33.93%
Return on Assets (ttm): 18.81%
Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 2.00%

Looks like double digit growth, and you must realize that gasoline profit is only one small part of the profits for the oil companies.

I am divided in my feelings about this, I don't really like the idea of penalizing a company because they have found a way to make lots of money. But, on the other hand, when I see that the former CEO of ExxonMobil gets a $400 million retirement package, it makes me question how much compensation is enough...

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by Bubba

it makes me question how much compensation is enough...

Enough is what the market will bear. In this guys case I'm sure he will be very comfortable for the rest of his life....lol There's an understatement. I'm not hatin' on him cause the guy got a decent retirement package. He helped make the company billions of dollars....

This guy did take risks though for the company to make money when others weren't taking risks.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/19/news....reut/?cnn=yes

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

...He helped make the company billions of dollars....

I don't think it was him so much as it was world events and other factors. Hell, I could have been CEO with no college education and I could have made the company a bunch of money in that time frame. Maybe not a $36 billion profit, they might have had to make do with $25 billion.....

[K C Muffin]

Let's see........let's tax the rich oil execs. They'll pay that tax. No, wait a minute. We'll pay it just like we do every other damned tax. If they take the tax off, it will be a clear message to the oil execs that they can raise the price. If the consumers were paying it before, they'll pay it again. I don't know what the answer is, but $3 gas makes my hiney squeeze when I pull the pickup up to the pump. Needless to say, it's parked so much lately that I still only have 25,000 mi on a 2003! There's gotta be good news in there somewhere!!

[Highwayman]

Mac Johnson does a fairly good job explaining gas prices, throws in some humor and takes a few shots at Bill O’Reilly in the process. A fun read.

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=14248

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by K C Muffin

If they take the tax off, it will be a clear message to the oil execs that they can raise the price. If the consumers were paying it before, they'll pay it again. !!

The "oil execs" do not set the price of oil or gas.

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by Highwayman

Mac Johnson does a fairly good job explaining gas prices, throws in some humor and takes a few shots at Bill O’Reilly in the process. A fun read.

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=14248

Great article...I listen to O'Reilly sometimes and he does have that rant going on. The Libs in Wash. are trying to blame the oil prices on Bush but if you look at the article some of the cost is BECAUSE of the LIBS in Washing...IE gas taxes...IE the Nature Nut Environmentalist...the laws make it so expensive for research and exploration and not even mentioning building a new refinery. Oil companies MAKE a lot of money but they spend a lot also. Either way the oil execs do not set the price. Obviously the price isn't too high yet if we are still driving "trucks" and suv's. When we start buying bikes and taking public transportation then we will know gas is expensive.

[lurker]

All that noise is to endear the voters and also ramp-up the oil lobbyi$t$ into a Capitol Hill $pending $pree.

The answer lies in using wind (solar) power to release hydrogen from H2O and further develop the processes and infrastructure.

It really saddens this ole doG to think about how all that money could have been voted to encourage the hydrogen economy and thereby diminish the hydrocarbon economy... and at the same time we would have withdrawn money and power from the middle east.