Monday, December 05, 2005

Windfall Profits

There has been much gnashing of teeth in Washington over rising costs of oil and the rising profits of oil companies.

What has been proven over and over again is that politicians would prefer to appear to be working on the problem, than to be seen as complacent or uncaring. And, by God, when I'm paying $2.19 per gallon it hurts the old pocket book. While I havn't written a note to my Congressional representatives yet, you can bet they have been inundated by some more vocal than I.

Huge profits are taboo for oil companies though not necessarily so for Coca-Cola which makes a much higher percentage profit on sales than does Exxon/Mobil. So, some members of our government are looking to pass a "windfall profits tax" on the oil companies.

An analysis of this proposed tax is the topic of a column by George Will on Townhall.

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