Senator Barak Obama commented recently on Exxon-Mobile’s 2nd quarter profits of $12 billion by noting that, “No U. S. corporation ever made that much in a single quarter”. In a statement on his web site, the senator called these profits “outrageous” especially “while Americans are paying record prices at the pump.”
Obama also suggested recently that we can save as much oil as we would get from drilling for more oil by just keeping our tires inflated and keeping our cars tuned up.
I have three questions for the senator:
Senator Obama, you are seeking to become the chief executive officer of a country that is asking its citizens to contribute $3 trillion over the next 12 months to keep it operating. No country has ever expected its citizens to pay this much in a single year! Do you find this as outrageous as Exxon-Mobile behavior? And, at a time when Americans are paying record amounts of money to keep the country operating, why is your call for higher taxes not equally outrageous?
Senator Obama, are you aware that the federal government that you seek to lead will take in about $6.67 billion in gasoline taxes for the gas consumed by Americans during the 2nd quarter of this year? When state and local gas taxes are added to the federal burden, governments at all levels will rake in $16.1 billion in gas tax profits. Do you find this outrageous? Since you are concerned about the record high gas prices being paid by Americans, should you direct the federal government to give some of it back and urge your companions in state and local governments to do the same? After all, you are suggesting new taxes on oil companies to take some of their profits away and give it back to the people.
Senator Obama, in a country where people find it difficult to maintain discipline with a diet or exercise routine for more than 27 nanoseconds, do you really believe that people will be diligent in keeping their tires inflated? Perhaps you have some legislation in mind to penalize people who don’t. I can see it now. On those three-day holiday weekends, we’ll add tire inflation checkpoints to our sobriety checkpoints. A guy who is stone-cold sober may make it through the drunk driving check only to find that he is still cited for DWUI – Driving While Under Inflated. We’ll cuff him and haul him off to jail and take away his license and get him to perform community service for his failure to help the country out of this energy crisis.
This country can solve its energy problem and it can do it in short order with a few wise decisions. A commitment to more drilling here and now would make an immediate impact. I also like the proposal put forward by a coalition of national security experts and environmentalists that would involve converting automobiles to methanol over the next few years (See more here at
http://www.setamericafree.org/ and specifically here at:
http://www.setamericafree.org/blueprint.pdf ) . I’m also in favor of conservation. This seems like an issue that is ready made for the bi-partisan approach that people claim to want on a variety of issues.
The one thing that will not work is the kind of demonization of private industry that Senator Obama is utilizing in pandering for votes.
