Title: Sen. Rand Paul: When Big Oil Screws Americans At The Gas Pump, ‘You Should Want To Encourage Them’ Source:
THINKPROGRESS URL Source:http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012 ... should-want-to-encourage-them/ Published:Mar 27, 2012 Author:Rebecca Leber Post Date:2012-03-27 16:00:53 by Brian S Keywords:None Views:22341 Comments:47
The top five oil companies in the United States have already made $5.8 billion in windfall profits from spiking gasoline prices this year. Yesterday, Senate Republicans agreed to debate a bill that repeals $2 billion in annual tax breaks for these super-wealthy oil giants. The move was purely a political calculation — don’t expect the GOP to end taxpayer welfare for their Big Oil allies. GOP senators like Rand Paul (R-KY) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have used their time on the Senate floor today to push error-riddled arguments coming straight from their oil industry donors.
Paul argued Big Oil deserves even more favors from government, because they’re doing such a good job extracting wealth from American families:
Instead of punishing them, you should want to encourage them. I would think you would want to say to the oil companies, “What obstacles are there to you making more money?” And hiring more people. Instead they say, “No, we must punish them. We must tax them more to make things fair.” This whole thing about fairness is so misguided and gotten out of hand.
Watch it:
“We as a society need to glorify those who make a profit,” Paul concluded.
In his floor speech, Kyl claimed that ending the tax breaks would be “discriminatory.”
The five major oil companies are some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the world, increasingly at the expense of the rest of humanity. The big five companies enjoyed record levels of $137 billion profits last year, while paying absurdly low tax rates. Exxon is the most profitable, making $1300 per second in 2011, but it only paid a 13 percent tax rate, according to a Reuters analysis. The oil industry claims it pays a higher tax rate — but it counts foreign taxes and deferred taxes.
The industry is set to make even higher profits from record gas prices. A Center for American Progress analysis shows that for every penny rise in gas, the big five companies gain $200 million more in profit. Republican senators are asking to boost Big Oil’s profits at the expense of the 99 percent.
Meanwhile, the oil industry is not using its profits to hire more people. Paul falsely claimed the oil companies employ 9.2 million people — in fact, there are only 2.2 million jobs in the entire oil industry, and 40 percent of those jobs are minimum-wage work at gas stations. Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP have shed their U.S. workforce by 11,200 between 2005 to 2010, according to a report last year. Big Oil isn’t investing in renewable energy or in reducing oil spills, either.
Strangely, while Kyl and Paul called an end to oil subsidies indefensible, they used the opportunity to label clean energy tax credits “crony government.” During his clean energy rant, Paul said:
It doesn’t seem to right that your tax dollars are sent to companies just because they’re big contributors.
Republicans have received 88 percent of donations from the oil industry’s coffers. In the Senate, Republicans have taken over $13.8 million from oil, compared to the Democrats’ $3.3 million, meaning Senate Republicans have taken four times the amount in Big Oil contributions as Democrats. Kyl is the No. 29 largest recipient in the Senate from oil and gas in career contributions with over $330,000and Paul has received over $106,000 from oil.
Fuel taxes in the United States vary by state. The United States federal excise tax on gasoline, as of February 2011, is 18.4 cents per gallon (4.86 ¢/L) and 24.4 cents per gallon (6.45 ¢/L) for diesel fuel. In January 2011, motor gasoline taxes averaged 48.1 cents per gallon (12.71 ¢/L) and diesel fuel taxes averaged 53.1 cents per gallon (14.03 ¢/L).[9] For the first quarter of 2009, the mean state gasoline tax is 27.2 cents per US gallon, plus 18.4 cents per US gallon federal tax making the total 45.6 cents per US gallon (12.0 ¢/L). For diesel, the mean state tax is 26.6 cents per US gallon plus an additional 24.4 cents per US gallon federal tax making the total 50.8 cents US per gallon (13.4 ¢/L).[10] There are also a few states and municipalities that charge sales tax on top of the excise taxes and the retail price.
At $4 per gallon for gasoline, the feds take 18.4¢ and that is a "profit" of 4.6%. They spent nothing, invested nothing, just take a fat share.
As for the states, they get about 50% than the feds do. At $4 gas and a mean state gas tax rate of 26.6¢, the states are averaging 6.65% profit off of fuel taxes.
And these are the people howling over the oil companies profiting from oil? Have they lost their minds? They're like some pack of communists.
The state and federal government rake in far more pure profit from the excise taxes on fuels than the oil companies ever get.
First, your chart includes state and local sales tax as well as excise taxes.
Second, state and federal sales taxes are not "pure profit", but are used to maintain roads, and pay for clean up of underground tank leakage.
Our Republican governor, the Terminator (some call the boobengrabber), did do some tricky thing with the gas taxes that raised rates and diverted money to the general fund*, but for the most part taxes on gas pay for roads and clean up.
*Grover Norquist seems to be more generous to GOP politicians when it comes to granting tax increases than he is to Democrats.
First, your chart includes state and local sales tax as well as excise taxes.
You can argue it with Wiki if you like. Seems a fair enough metric to me.
The picture won't improve much even if you had your way.
Second, state and federal sales taxes are not "pure profit", but are used to maintain roads, and pay for clean up of underground tank leakage.
They are also used to routinely blackmail states. Like trying to force Montana to enforce the 55mph speed limit (despite the fact that one of the largest killers on Montana's highways was people falling asleep at the wheel).
The picture won't improve much even if you had your way.
What is my way, I'd like to know.
Like trying to force Montana to enforce the 55mph speed limit (despite the fact that one of the largest killers on Montana's highways was people falling asleep at the wheel).
We haven't had a 55mph speed limit in California for many years, why does the federal government impose that on Montana?
The police and legislators in Montana (and Wyoming) both argued that the safest way to cross those vast stretches of rather monotonous landscape was by driving faster. The faster you cross it, the less time you have to fall asleep.
It was a good argument. And they had stats from earlier years showing they had fewer asleep-at-the-wheel deaths before the feds meddled.
The police and legislators in Montana (and Wyoming) both argued that the safest way to cross those vast stretches of rather monotonous landscape was by driving faster. The faster you cross it, the less time you have to fall asleep.
An engineer friend, who has probably had more to do with the development of air bags than anyone else, says the chances of anyone surviving a crash at 80mph is very slight.
