It’s like these guys took a copy of Atlas Shrugged, read all the ideas from James Taggart et al., and thought, “Hey, this is a great “How-to” book. Let’s use it to create law.”
Enter, the “Reasonable Profits Board.” This socialist panel would be able to levy “Windfall Profits taxes” of up to 100% on any profit they deem unreasonable.
Of course, the question that needs an answer is, what define “reasonable.” Liberals treat unreasonable profits like porn. They’ll know it when they see it:
The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a “windfall profit tax” as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.
Let’s not nit-pick over silly little details when there is political posturing to be done. It’s an election year. Liberals have to once again establish how much they hate profits, especially profits Big Oil earns.
According to the bill, a windfall tax of 50 percent would be applied when the sale of oil or gas leads to a profit of between 100 percent and 102 percent of a reasonable profit. The windfall tax would jump to 75 percent when the profit is between 102 and 105 percent of a reasonable profit, and above that, the windfall tax would be 100 percent. The bill also specifies that the oil-and-gas companies, as the seller, would have to pay this tax.
If that last sentence doesn’t shine a spotlight on the complete and total ignorance of the writers of this bill, I don’t know what will. Look past the idiocy of taxing unreasonable profits without actually defining what is reasonable. Look past the socialist nature of the entire idea.
Somehow, these jackasses think they are going to get a business to do something that no successful business has ever done in the history of economics: pay taxes from money that doesn’t come from profit.
How do they expect to do this? If an oil company makes enough money to activate the Marxist machinery described in this bill, where does the panel expect the money will come from to pay the tax? The profits come from you and me, not Jed Clampett, CEO of Big Oil, Inc.
The taxes confiscated from the company would be money we paid the company first.
What do you think that would do to the price of gas? You think it would lower it? If so, how and why?
I suppose in your Leninist dreamworld, the taxes looted would help lessen demand for oil:
Specifically, he said the money would be used to fund a tax credit on the purchase of fuel-efficient cars and set up a grant program for mass transit programs when oil-and-gas prices are high.
Perfect. You loot the gas and oil companies, who are making enough money to earn a profit, expand their business and hire more people, and give it to the makers of the Chevy Volt.
Yep, that’ll solve the problem.
Now, let me ask you this: what’s limiting the “Reasonable Profits Board” to Big Oil, and what makes you think they would keep creeping into every business in the country, deciding how much is enough for you to keep?
Hat Tip: Ace of Spades
