In article <ik0Wj.115852$Ft5.44062@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Day Brown <daybrown@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Dionysus wrote:
> > FROM IBD
> >
> > HEAD: DEMOCRATS' WINDFALL TAX -- ON YOU
> >
> > In their ongoing war against U.S. oil producers, Senate Democrats say
> > they'll slap Big Oil with a windfall profits tax and take away $17
> > billion in tax breaks, among other punishments. The planned 25
percent
> > tax on windfall profits would be imposed on oil company earnings above
> > what the Senate's wise members decided was "reasonable." Never mind
> > that what's "reasonable" to one person might be punitive to another,
> > says Investor's Business Daily (IBD).
> >
> > The last time the United States had a windfall profits tax on oil
> > companies, the results were [disastrous]:
> > --Over the entire 1980-1986 period, the (windfall profits tax) reduced
> > domestic oil production from between 320 million barrels . . . and
1,268
> > million barrels according to the Congressional Research Service.
> > --Oil companies were hit hard by the tax, and in line with basic
> > economic theory, they produced less oil, not more.
> > --The effect of reducing domestic oil production was to increase the
> > level of im****ted oil, says IBD:
> >
> > At the time, the United States im****ted about 30 percent of its oil;
> > today, we im****t about 60 percent.
> >
> > In part, that jump in oil dependency was due to the huge tax advantage
> > we gave foreign oil companies in the 1980s -- and to the continuing
> > advantage we give them today by refusing to let our oil companies
> > produce more crude from our own reserves.
> > Revenues from the windfall tax were far less than expected, because
> > producers pumped less and non-taxed im****ts flooded our market.
> > Compared with a forecast of $393 billion in windfall tax revenues from
> > 1980 to 1988, Congress got a mere $80 billion.
> > *********
> > Dose dim Dems..."stupid is as stupid does" indeed.
> Where the rubber hits the road, is what big oil does with profits.
> Paying the head of Exxon 400 million a year has not done jack schitt to
> increase oil production or drive down the price at the pump. Au
> Contraire, what the high cost of management has done is drive prices up.
>
> And if the tax makes them keep more American oil in the ground and buy
> more foreign oil, that's good. Use up their oil first. Any investor can
> see the profit in doing that.
>
> You'd think economic conservatives could figure out capitalism.
What we did figure out is that the price of gasoline today will be a
bargain compared to what will happen to the price of gasoline in this
country if Democrats get this passed. Oil companies no longer need
American money, they can sell that precious oil to a number of places,
and they will be happy to buy it.
--
All saints have a past--all sinners have a future
Ronald Reagan
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