Obama’s First Economic Decision; The Tax on Oil Profiteers
today saw a small announcement, gobbled up by the constant newsreel and spit out onto marginalized and fairly unlinked and unheadlined pages, regarding the abandonment of the windfall profits tax as a way to generate tax revenue to pay for the social spending which obama’s campaign constantly promised.
look in any of the business websites to see the response of the money and powerful– glee, ebulation, disdain for the rhetoric of the measure as a ‘populist way to cozy up with American voters and never a real policy issue’.
people will say ‘oh, but gas is below $50 a barrel now, how can we charge a windfall tax on them, they’re hurting during this downturn as well– the only problem with that logical reasoning is that they filled their coffers with record breaking profits 6 consecutive quarters, when dollars were cheap and plentiful, and during this downturn will use that expanded wealth to even greater self benefit. during a deflationary period, those that gained immediately before gain a second time; you make money when its cheap, and loan it out when its expensive… simple supply and demand. the current economic state is even more reason to punish those profiteers that accrued so much wealth during the 90s and early part of the new millennium on the backs of credit-card obsessed americans— if we don’t punish them for their crimes during those periods, they become exponentially more powerful when their gains are made concrete by lowered levels of cash flow in their competitors and dissenters.
but obama doesnt see it like that, and he doesnt have an economic team which sees beyond the dow jones industrial average.
moreover, without that kind of revenue stream, how can you expect to pay for the large scale infrastructure changes, much needed r+d on renewables, or any of the other grand plans paraded before the american people?
read the story of victor paz– president elected in bolivia in 1985 on campaign promises of social programs, infrastructure update, and progressive social policies. once elected, he convened a high and mighty economic team, which went through every line of the budget, cutting the programs that didnt work [social spending] and improving the ons that did [by privitizing them].
please watch out president elect very carefully, as it seems that each time he’s made a decision, it has gone against the rhetoric of his campaign, the very nature of the independent movements he co opted to get elected, and the best interests of the vast majority of american’s who voted for him.
Reed Mollins
reedmollins@gmail.com
as a brief add-on, 2008 marked yet another world-record breaking profit year for ExxonMobile.