Excess profits tax adds to problem<

Sens. Clinton and Obama want an excess profits tax on greedy awful oil companies.

Seems to me we should be delighted, not angry, since our whole country was built on the idea that companies are supposed to make profits. Exxon Mobile made $10.9 billion in first quarter profits. Oh my goodness!

Let's see, according to Ernst and Young, between 1992 and 2006, our (the U.S.) oil industry spent $1.25 trillion on long-term investment versus $10 billion of profits. T is bigger than B!

In 2007 (a record year), big bad oil earned 8.3 cents per dollar of sales. Cigarettes and beverage companies earned 19.1 cents; drug makers made 18.4 cents; and all manufacturing 8.9 cents. Guess we need excess profits taxes on everything.

Of course the last time we tried this approach, the Congressional Research Service found revenues produced for the government were 75 percent below the prediction. Oil output fell and imports increased.

Let's try it again. Maybe it will work this time.

The Democratic Congress and tree huggers will not let us drill in certain parts of Alaska or offshore, where somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 billion barrels of oil sits untapped.

We do not need this because we can import all we need. Who cares about the price?

Seems like prices are high because there is a shortage. Congress is trying to make sure that we do not have enough for the future by putting in a tax, nixing nuclear plants and preventing drilling.

Yea for Hillary, Barack, Congress, and tree huggers.

James A. Wagner

Barrington