Who is really gouging the price of gas?

George Will says the government is making the most off of the high gas prices...
As Will points out, gasoline itself carries about a 3% profit margin for oil companies. That's about 13 cents a gallon at today's prices. (Their overall profit margin is less than 10%, which puts it slightly behind most other consumer-product industries.) Will demonstrates where the rest of the money goes. In the example given, state and federal governments take 58 cents from every gallon, or four times what Big Oil gets in profit. San Francisco takes an additional 8.5% in city/county sales tax, which on $3 per gallon would be another 25 cents.

Since the government bite is based on the sales price as a percentage, the government gets more as the price goes up. Not only that, but now the government wants to impose a "windfall profits" tax on an industry that doesn't have windfall profits, making the government an even larger beneficiary of higher prices, and guaranteeing that prices will continue to rise as the money for further investment gets siphoned off to Washington DC.


Powered by ScribeFire.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No one spoke to Blago, except Rahmbo multiple times...

The dominoes keep falling... but he can't talk about it because, well you know, he's dad... Rahm Emanuel Reportedly Spoke with Blagojevich About Senate Seat Conversations with Governor? Chicago -- The firestorm surrounding Governor Blagojevich is putting some heat on Barack Obama’s transition team. Fox Chicago News has learned about possible conversations between a top Obama aide and the governor regarding the open senate seat. Craig Wall has the exclusive.
Read more

Obama at 45% in Rasmussen

Image
Daily Presidential Tracking Poll - Rasmussen Reports™ Daily Presidential Tracking Poll Friday, March 19, 2010 The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21. That matches the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President (see trends). Each time the President leads a big push for his health care plan, his job approval ratings suffer. For Members of Congress, the impact may be more tangible. Just 34% say they’re more likely to vote for someone who supports this legislation. Fifty-percent (50%) are less likely to vote for a Member of Congress who supports the health care reform plan proposed by the President and Congressional Democrats.
Read more