"There's nothing we can do about high gas prices"

[Stinky The Clown]

Gas prices (all energy prices, actually) represent a potentially catastrophic hit to virtually very part of our society and our economy.

I should think that, in the interest of 'protecting the homeland' something **could** be done.

Like emergency price controls. Nixon did it.

How about a limit on allowable corporate profits. What Exxon is doing is quite simply ... obscene.

How about a tax cut that matters .... Federal gas taxes.

Lots of others things, too, I'm sure.

The statement that there's little they can do is just pure bullshit.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. It should read

There's nothing we WANT to do about high gas prices.

[Talismom]

2. I'd like to storm the Bastille, quite frankly--you know they would

have by now if a dem was in office!

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. We could stop threatening to nuke Iran

Speculation of impending war is driving up price of crude.

We could have a DOJ that actually investigates illegal price fixing.

[havocmom]

4. Well, everybody in the country could stop going to work

claiming they are outta gas and unable to come up with the bankrolls to fill the tank.

Guess there aren't enough folks who remember the power of general strikes.

[jaxx]

5. This reads like a fairy tale.........or an election year gimme.

<snip> Also Sunday, OPEC President Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru predicted that oil prices would fall from their current high of just over $75 a barrel to stabilize in the "upper fifties to lower sixties."

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060424/D8H64I480.html

[SharonAnn]

6. Windfall profits tax on oil companies. That's where the problem is.

[BlueEyedSon]

7. open the SPR

[Jayhawk Lib]

8. Nixon's wage and price

controls were a disaster. We for sure do not want to go there.

[DBoon]

10. a windfall profts tax might work though

if there is a penalty come tax time for massive price increases, there is less icnentive to hike prices dramatically.

This would help moderate dramatic market fluctations and even out prices in the long term

We may well have reached "peak oil" and higher prices are inevitable, but sudden, dramatic increases are economically ruinous, not just to individuals but also to industries that depend on oil and gas.

A more gradual increase, if justified by supply and demand, would at least allow for long term planning to accomodate more expensive oil

[Jayhawk Lib]

13. A windfall profits tax

would accomplish absolutely nothing. NOTHING!!!! It very possibly would make things worse.

When I was a small child my mother would preach to me that the world owes me nothing, absolutely nothing. Just because someone has more than me, they owe me nothing. Not the government. Not the rich. That would also apply to the oil companies. She said you are going to have to go out in the world and earn your way. Nobody is going to give you anything you so if you want something you are going to have to work hard to earn it.

Was my mother wrong? Now that I am older, I think about it a lot and you know...she was right. Nobody owes me anything.

I have no oil company stock or any other interest in oil companies but I am glad that when I need gas somebody had the foresight to invest in the oil and gas business to provide me with it.

Flame me if you wish but this is the hard cold truth.

[DBoon]

14. Your reply is irrelevant to the issue

I hope you enjoy your brief stay here.

Perhaps you will find another blog where you can post more of your mother's stories

[Jayhawk Lib]

16. You did not answer my question

What would a windfall profits tax accomplish? It would not change world markets. It would not change the gasoline markets here in the U.S..

I see nothing that it would accomplish except add a very small amount of money to the government coffers. With the size of the government revenues it would be a very minute amount of money. And what would the government do with the small amount of money?

I doubt that they would find more oil, build more refineries, or come up with alternative sources of energy. They would probably use it for more pork barrel projects that we do not need or for the most part want to buy votes for some legislator in his district.

[Stinky The Clown]

19. I'll answer your question about what a windfall tax would do ....

First off, don't put it in the general fund. Earmark it **specifically** for alternative energy research. You know ... that research that will put the fucking oil robber barons out of business eventually.

Profits and prices will drop like a stone.

It just takes some balls ... and a Democratic congress.

[Texifornia]

15. I hear you, Jayhawk

...and I agree to an extent. I even work with the O & G industry.

This, I think may be a special case. Something like the special case of the Homestead Act in reverse. With immense government help, petroleum has become the overwhelmingly dominant energy source for the world. It has been favored with public lands, special tax breaks and outright subsidies for decades.

Now, the peak is in sight (whether just ahead or in the rear-view I leave to other discussions) and oil companies will see their prices rise geometrically while their costs stay around the same. The oil companies do not fix the price of oil, they couldn't do so if they wanted to, but they have benefitted from feeding at the public trough and that public investment may need to be paid off.

This is not a "cut and dried" issue. Windfall profits taxes could backfire if not drafted correctly, but there is justification for its consideration.

[abburdlen]

18. Maybe nobody 'owes' anyone anything

it's a valid philosophic topic. Let's take a look at it...

Do you and I owe energy companies free use of our property? This administration is nearly giving away public lands to energy and mining companies.

Do you and I owe them a portion of our paycheck? With the tax breaks that the GOP has given to the oil industry that's what it's amounted to. Never mind a windfall tax, let's start by ending the breaks they'll already be given.

And what about the nearly 2400 killed and the 17,000+ injured in Iraq? Did they own it to the oil companies to help secure a source for oil?

Maybe everyman for himself works for you, but personally i like this a bit better:

"The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt."
-Sir Walter Scott

[BlackHeart]

9. A reduction in gas taxes is not the answer

if anything they should be higher to discourage gasoline useage and to help pay for the deficit.

[guidod]

12. You are correct my friend!

[DrGonzoLives]

17. Yeah, screw the people with no alternatives

Especially the poor. Fuck 'em! More regressive taxes!

[magellan]

20. Higher taxes do not discourage gasoline use

Not to the levels required. All it really does is punish the consumer for the failures of the government to provide alternatives.

Look at the UK. They've had ever-increasing petrol duty for years with the intent to curb usage; the total tax makes up roughly two-thirds of what Brits pay at the pump. And they pay roughly $6-7/gallon as it is. It hasn't deterred them from buying cars and using them because most don't have any viable alternative in the form of public transportation.

Fuel tax is a regressive tax. If you want to further destroy the ability of people to survive in the economic here and now, it's a great idea. Otherwise it's just a boon to the government -- and this particular administration has a nasty habit of reallocating extra taxes to things like wars.

[Mr.Green93]

11. Gas prices were never this high under Democratic rule

For lower gas prices vote Democratic.