Thursday, December 04, 2008

To All Those Who Pee a Little at the Word "Change": Prepare to be Dissappointed

After three years of spitting venom at the shortcomings of the Republican Party, now I get a chance at the other side.  And what better place to start than to point out evidence that the Oil companies already have their hands on the controls of the Obama Puppet Show.

An article published by Reuters today explains that because the price of a barrel of oil has dropped below $80 per barrel, Obama is no longer going to deliver on his promise to impose a windfall profits tax on the oil companies.  The money generated by the tax was to go to lower and middle class households to cope with the strain of heating costs.

I thought Obama was looking out for the little guy? Is that not what he promised all through his campaign? Suddenly now that he is elected it is more necessary to protect the profits of a multinational, multibillion dollar company than the common man.  Honestly now, none of you optimists saw this coming?

The argument by the Oil companies is that the added tax will "stifle exploration and innovations.#" I truly hope that no one believes this excuse for even a second.  My hopes however rarely come true.  In the last quarter of 2007 Exxon Mobil made a record $11.7 billion dollars in profit#.  Exactly how much money does it take to "innovate and explore?."

This is not to say that the drop in oil prices as of late has not and will not hamper the profits of the oil companies, but to say that they are going to feel much of a hurt would be a lie.  In order to get a better hold of where Exxon lies currently you can look back at the last time oil prices were at the current level (about $44 per barrel.)  This level was last hit in the fourth quarter of 2004. How was Exxon doing that year?  Well that was another previous record profit year.  The company averaged a quarterly profit of $6.3 billion#.  So even now, are the oil companies shaking in their shoes? I think not.

While the price of oil is at a FOUR year low and oil companies are destined for poverty, having to live only on handful of billions of dollars in profit the unemployment rate has reached its highest point in TWENTY-SIX years#.

Honestly I am having a difficult time understand why Obama would throw his windfall tax plan out the window.  Even if the price of oil has dramatically decreased, so have the incomes of a great amount of people.  Their ability to pay fuel charges has not changed, or in many cases has become much worse with the loss of their job.  To make matters worse many Americans unsure of what the price of fuel was going to do locked in their fuel costs in the summer when they were at their highs. These people apparently will become casualties of the market system with no help from the president who promised it to them.  Maybe Hugo Chavez will make another run up here this winter.

What it comes down to is, who has more wiggle room?  The answer is obviously the oil companies, they can deal with a short term recessions much better than the common person can.  Obviously the percentages of profits taken from the the oil companies in this tax would not yield the tax money originally envisioned, but any percentage of billions helps. 

So who are you really for Mr. Obama, Us or Exxon?  I think we just got your answer.