What is the point of that dog and pony show? Are they going to say
"Dudes, why did you make so much MONEY this year?"
Reply:
"Cause we run a smart business."
Conversation over.
I mean really, what can Congress do? I know they are gathering info for a discussion about maybe hitting BigOil with extra windfall taxes or whatever, but really, it was just the market doing what the market does......
But election year is coming up, so a bit of flag waving is in order, particularly given the close ties between the repubicans and oil industry.
R2-E2, 2G Prius.
Highway/City/Husband/Wife MPG: 56.5, as of 12/2005, 26K miles
Jac Nasser, Ford President: "We are planning to launch a hybrid version of
this car [P2000] within this year [1998]. We will also make FCEV available in
2004."
What else can congress do? Easy! Oil & natural gas = energy. The energy industry is heavily regulated in nearly every state in the country. They could put federal regulations on the fossil fuel companies much like our electric and water utilities are heavily regulated. Praise Marx!
instituting a windfall profit tax is wrong. Not only does it go against capitalism (limiting the amount of profit a company can make before giving the rest to the government), it prevents further research and development of other energy sources and getting more out of what we have now. I honestly think that all the red tape has slowed R&D at oil companies. If it takes 10 years to get through red tape, what are they suppose to do with those profits during the meantime? Give them to the government? What a stupid idea.
Okay, I made too much money this year, let me give that $10,000 raise I wasn't expecting to the government, afterall it is a profit windfall.
Actually our personal income tax is already set up that way. I screwed up with my investing the last two years and ended up with a "book" capital gain of about $35,000 in 2003 and a capital loss of about $30,000 in 2004. You'd think that meant I still made $5000, but I didn't. I had to pay about $12,000 or something retarded in taxes on the $35,000, but I can only write off $3000/year up to 5 years on the $30,000 loss. The end result is something of a wash, or basically a loss because of my "windfall" in 2003 that never really existed.
Senate May Summon Oil CEOs
