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If "some smaller oil companies need these tax breaks to compete with major oil companies," how does it help the "smaller oil companies" when the major oil companies get these breaks too? That's right, it's just BS.
Don't you people have the ability to smell **it when you see it?
Remember there has not been a "free" market in petroleum since J. D. Rockefeller established the Standard Oil monopoly in the late 1800's. The monopoly was created to control the amount of petroleum released for sale to protect prices. Petroleum has been controlled by variations on this theme to keep prices at profitable levels ever since.
I do not think cutting all government subsidies is needed but I do think there should be an upper limit to the amount paid. This would help small exploratory companies offset the very high risk in their businesses but not pad the pockets of the owners of BIG OIL.
..."If you own any mutual funds-- then you probably own an oil company. I guarantee this will cause your retirement outlook to look more dismal by causing your mutual funds to go down in value. Some oil companies may have to cut their dividends. This will make shareholders (particularly seniors) have to struggle even more to pay their mortgages. Many seniors depend on oil company dividends to stay afloat..."
Boy, that tops my list of concerns.
Those wealthy enough to have Wall Street holdings might see their profits drop.
Everybody else should shut up, pay the $6.00 per gallon. and just sacrifice some more of their budget.
Them rich folk want budget cuts, but only on everybody else's back.
SICK.
what is sick is thinking that paying 6 dollars per gallon for gasoline is going to help you out.
there has been no interest in controlling the oil speculation and no interest in boosting the value of the dollar.
furthermore, as momonkey astutely pointed out we sure aren't having any free market economics at work.
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.
it is so stupid to have the bogeyman be the fuel that is currently powering up america. i know the government needs a scapegoat away from their own ridiculous spending, but they gave 3 billion just to acorn and are demanding that they get some money from SOMEBODY!
The OP and some others will say they are for the free market and will not bat a eye for supporting subsidies. They do not even see their own hypocrisy. The free market is you rise and fall our your own accord and not if you lose a tax break or a subsidy. The OP I think? could be from the right side of the aisle but I noticed he used a very leftist argument. One of his points was if we take away there tax break/subsidy it will put people out of work. It is the same argument that comes from the left about cutting spending it will cut the size gvt and people will be out of work. So they both embrace that it is the gvt's job to insure that people are employed by money from the treasury but in our case Uncle Ben. To those people who claim they are for the free market but support targeted tax breaks,subsidies,and bail outs would you please stop,you are embarrassing us that really do support the free market. Just man up and admit you are Keynesian and support a central planned economy.
With gas prices nearing $5gal its absurd to use our tax dollars to also give the richest companies in history even more money through tax breaks.
Jambo, As a business person that owns my own business, if I get a tax hike, my prices to the consumer are going to go up, to make up for the lost profits, that keep my world running.
Income based tax systems are a way for government to wage a class war to raise revenue.
Without them everyone pays fairly for our governments waste.
If you're referring to flat-taxes, remember that if one lowers rates on the higher earners (which a flat-tax will do,) the only way to get the same revenue is for the lower-earners to pay more. That's precisely why the nation's billionaires are flat-tax proponents.
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