This week the House is voting to repeal tax provisions for 5 oil and natural gas companies in the US. What this article (and pretty much any other article out there) fails to mention is that what the House is really voting on is to repeal a portion of the "American Jobs Creation Act" of 2004. This law provides tax provisions to all US manufacturers and producers. So basically the House is voting to remove these 5 companies from a law that benefits everyone from farmers and mineral producers to movie studios and video game producers. Shortsighted, election year moves like these will not lead to a US less dependent on foreign oil, but rather force these companies to continue to rely on foreign initiatives.
An earlier thread noted that ExxonMobil had $40.6 billion in profits in 2007. What is usually not mentioned along with that number is that all taxes incurred by ExxonMobil in 2007 were a record $106 billion (including an effective income tax rate of 44%).
Imposing windfall profit taxes on a small subset of companies (and mascarading it around as levying new taxes and supporting renewable energy as opposed to repealing legislation) is just another example of politicians trying to use hot topic issues to establish favor with American voters. The Congressional Research Service (Congress' research arm) has stated that these proposals will reduce investment in domestic oil and gas consquently increasing imports.
I'm sick of manipulative legislation and shotty, selective journalism that is all too common these days.
