Obama's new taxes

A blogger at Soballiance (Ohio conservative bloggers) responded to Obama’s man in Ohio, Aaron Pickrell (governor's staff), who attempted to explain Obama’s windfall tax plan in a mailing. I agree with the blogger . This is no plan. This is a tax on us, especially retirees and anyone who drives a car or truck or uses merchandise that is transported on a road or through the air, or who has a home or business that needs heat, or uses anything made of plastic or rubber, etc.

First, taxing a company is not an energy plan. You'd have to be a plain fool to think otherwise. Second, do you think that taxing a successful company will make them want to provide more product or less product. Third, at what level does profit become a wind-fall? Will Obama try to use a percentage of revenue, or just some arbitrary number? If percentage, what rate? Coca-cola, Pepsi, Wal-mart and many other companies have a higher profit margin than nearly all of the oil companies. Moreover, will Obama pay this windfall tax on the profits he made on selling his books? Or how about the professional athletes who make tens of millions for playing a few games a year, or endorsing products? Will they be taxed too? If it's by number (some arbitrary dollar amount), do you think that would provide an incentive to earn more money or less money? I don't know if you know this, but oil companies employ a whole lot of people. So with higher taxes or lower profits, that's less money to employ workers. Not to mention that a majority of Exxon (in particular) stock is owned by pension funds and individuals through mutual funds and 401(k)'s. So Obama's "windfall" profit tax is actually a tax on working class Americans.

And it seems the left isn't happy with oil money, no matter what--whether costs are up or down, ours or Iraq's, according to an editorial in today's WSJ

Among the antiwar faithful, every improvement in Iraq is still bad news, even if -- or especially if -- it's good news for the U.S. So it is with the political eruption over Iraq's budget surplus.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Iraqi government generated some $96 billion in revenues since 2005, when Baghdad started managing its own budget, with about 94% coming from crude oil exports. Now Democrats and a few Republicans are complaining that Iraq is "pocketing huge profits" without spending enough on reconstruction. The GAO figures the surplus could run as high as $50 billion this year, though the real figure will be far lower once parliament resolves ongoing budget negotiations. The Iraq surplus

If the economy improves, it's bad news for Democrats; if the price of oil goes down, it's bad news for Democrats. What's good for the nation is bad for Democrats. So guess who's throwing a monkey wrench into the works and then promises to fix it?