1970's Redux: Senate Democrats Debate 'Windfall Profits' Tax

By Rick Moran

If senate Democrats keep this up, I'll be able to break out my bell bottom jeans and start revving up my Donna Summers records:

With gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, Senate Democrats want the government to grab some of the billions of dollars in profits being taken in by the major oil companies.

Senators were to vote Tuesday on whether to consider a windfall profits tax against the five largest U.S. oil companies and rescind $17 billion in tax breaks the companies expect to enjoy over the next decade

"The oil companies need to know that there is a limit on how much profit they can take in this economy," said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, warning that if energy prices are not reined in "we're going to find ourselves in a deep recession.

But the Democrats are going to have to overcome staunch Republican opposition to any new taxes on the oil industry. The five largest U.S. oil companies earned $36 billion during the first three months of the year.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will need 60 votes Tuesday to proceed with the oil tax legislation in the face of a threatened GOP filibuster. If he doesn't get 60, he likely will pull the bill from the floor.

The oil companies are easy targets - for liberals and demagogues. That's because neither has a clue about how markets work, the laws of supply and demand, nor about capitalism in general.

When the #2 Democrat in the Senate can talk about "limits" on profits for one group of companies, what's to prevent them from going after other companies for being "too successful?" They've already broken up microsoft. They are threats about going after Google. Punishing success is what liberals are all about - unless you're talking about huge labor unions like the AFL-CIO. I don't hear too many Democrats talk about taking money from their political fund which is flush with cash from people who don't even support the candidates backed by their union nor do we hear anything about busting up the unions because they're too big.

What a bunch of posturing peacocks these senators be.