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Find out more about Jay: Jay began writing politically themed commentary and founded his blog, Swimming Freestyle, in October 2007. Here he'll write about politics from a progressive perspective. |
Senate Republicans blocked a proposal Tuesday to tax the windfall profits of the largest oil companies, despite pleas by Democratic leaders to use the measure to address America's anger over $4 a gallon gasoline.I wrote a while back about the inequity and ineffectiveness of taxing windfall profits, particularly as it relates to alleviating the pain at the pump high gas prices are causing. First, you can't very well penalize the oil companies for engaging in pure capitalistic practices and second, any increased taxation on oil companies would be paid for by customers at the pump.
The Democratic energy package would have imposed a tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies and given the federal government more power to address oil market speculation that the bill's supporters argue has added to the crude oil price surge. (Link)
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