If the McCain campaign doesn’t pick up on this story, they’ve missed an opportunity to show the fallacy of Obama’s anti-freedom message. First, take a quick look at this video:
The crooks you say! Thieves, scoundrals, destroyers of the economy, filthy rich CEO bastards, big fat cats stealing from the common people . . . etc, etc, and etc. Business is in business to make a killing and that’s the problem you say? Hold on for just one moment.
I could try and respond to you with “When you and I go to a yard sale, (garage sale for you Yankees), we don’t go to get a deal—we go to get a steal, right? Business is doing the same thing on a larger scale.” You’d agree. So let us take a view of Exxon as a prime example of the capitalist pig.
Business Week reports that Exxon’s first quarter report for 2008 revealed total receipts of $39.5 billion dollars. So what did Exxon really make. I promise you’ll find it interesting when next you slip that nozel into your tank.
Exxon’s total profits were $10.9 Billion dollars. Even more startling was the fact that Exxon paid worldwide income taxes of 49% or $9.3 billion dollars. But that’s not all readers:
Exxon paid close to $3 in taxes ($2.69) for each $1 it earned in profits as reported here. Here is the breakdown for the total taxes paid by Exxon:
Did you get that? $3 in taxes for every $1 earned? Now reduce the $10.9 billion profit by the costs of doing business such as research and development and drilling. WHO IS GOUGING WHO?
To get to the quick of it, here’s what Obama is really telling you. “Nike shoes makes too much money. We’ve got to tax Nike more. We’re going to raise taxes on the sneaker fat cats.” Folks, tell me something, how is that going to make a pair of Nike shoes less expensive? Obama wants to gouge you more! And what happens when these politicians for life do something this evil?
Recall the Democrat luxury tax on yachts in 1990. It was approximately 100% of the total price of the yacht. Screw the rich you say? They’ll pay more. Well, did the filthy rich just decide to pay more? Nope. The U.S. yacht-building industry in the US was practically destroyed. No one bought yachts or if they did, they went overseas to Norway to buy them. This absurd tax was repealed in 1992, and it took years for the industry to recover. But at what cost? How many jobs were lost? How many lives destroyed?
I’ll tell you, the common man was kicked out on the street because he lost his job at the yacht factory. They had to take lower paying jobs. This is the economic plan of Obama. Do you really want this reader? McCain better get on the ball and start smacking Obama’s nonsense around. Oh wait a minute, McCain said he doesn’t know anything about the economy.
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
Exxon and the big oil companies make me sick! The oil executives lied under oath in 2005 before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee when asked if they were receiving kickbacks from the high costs of fuel. If only the GOP chose to nominate someone who knew something about the economy, then Ron Paul would be knocking common sense into Obama and making him look more incapable of handling this country. I am not supporting Obama or McCain in 2008, because they are simply clueless.
They are clueless about how to handle an economy that is in a landslide. We need to return to fiscal conservatism to strengthen the economy.
“So let us take a view of Exxon as a prime example of the capitalist pig.”
Pandering and populist hogwash.
Nothing is more pathetic that reading little guy “have nots” carping about legitimate free commerce.
That’s right, they can buy and sell you over and over ad infinitum. Get over it.
Do you have any idea how expensive it is to explore and drill for oil?
Why aren’t the oil companies entitled to earn a profit?
Why not complain instead about all the taxes that are levied on a gallon of fuel?
Why not complain about cowardly libs who won’t drill in ANWR and off our coasts?
Why not complain about the same libs who won’t allow more refineries to be built?
There’s more oil and natural gas beneath the surface of this planet than we would know what to do with. Certain people don’t want us to get it.
Blame those people, not the oil companies.
I do blame the liberals as much as the oil companies. If we were able to drill in ANWR and utilize offshore drilling, then we would not have this crisis.
Black David, I wasn’t blaming the oil companies. You can stop arguing. We agree.