Drudge has posted an EXXON logo and a screaming headline which says “3–Month Profit: $8,400,000,000.00”, as if they alone are to blame for the high gas prices. Yet, from my calculations, the government has pocketed $16,800,000,000.00 in the same amount of time, for doing nothing. Then there is state government who also “profit” from each gallon of gas we use. If you’re angry about gas prices, don’t direct that anger at EXXON, or SHELL, or BP. No, look directly at Washington DC.
PunditGuy
Conservative Commentary
Well all but 4 cents of the federal tax went to the highway trust fund to build and maintain the roads you drive on. And the other 4 cents went very slightly to support the rest of federal operations including the massive military to protect the collection and distribution of oil from the middle east, so I wouldn’t say they were “doing nothing” with it. Exxon on the other hand spent 400,000,000 on its CEO’s retirement package. Now I concede that most of the current price movements are the result of supply and demand forces in the oil market resulting from our ever less efficient cars, political uncertainty over a possible altercation with Iran and Venezuela, and our continuing failure to secure Iraq. But Exxon brings this scorn on itself by crediting its CEO with generating these huge profits and then turning around and saying its not earning huge profits. Their either evil geniuses or helpless middle men but they shouldn’t claim to be both.