Are Oil Companies Breaking the Law and If Not Should Laws be Changed

[bobman0330]

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taxing oil profits won't significantly alter investment. do you honestly think that if Exxon made 8 billion last quarter they would do something differently? Plus, how much are oil companies investing in the US anyway?

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If Exxon expects its future profits to be stolen, you can be sure they won't be making risky investments. They're not investing in the US, they're investing in getting oil for us.

[bobman0330]

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There is another esoteric twist to consider.

The present administration has, with its foreign policy actions, pretty much declared oil to be "national asset". To protect this asset the administration is willing to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers and billions of dollars of tax money. So, if our tax dollars are being used to nationalize this resource and as a direct consequence of this we are now seeing $60 plus oil helping to create the windfall for some companies, should we not be looking to get some of our tax dollars back?

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Huh?

Technically, they're investing to make more money for themselves. But this just highlights how we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Also, whenever the federal government doesn't tax these companies and their profits, they need to come up with other ways of raising the money. that means either more debt or more taxes for the rest of us.

[bobman0330]

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Technically, they're investing to make more money for themselves. But this just highlights how we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Also, whenever the federal government doesn't tax these companies and their profits, they need to come up with other ways of raising the money. that means either more debt or more taxes for the rest of us.

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You seem to be implying that these companies aren't taxed at all. In fact, Exxon's only going to bank less than $8 billion, and the remainder is going to the US Treasury. INn fact, the total tax bill will probably be higher if Exxon decides to send some of these profits to the shareholders, who will pay tax on them again. So let's not pretend they aren't pulling their own weight. People just want to steal from them so: a. the gov't will have a little more money and b. they can pretend like they're doing something about oil prices.