Obama's Latest Tax Proposal

$1,000 rebates to families, $500 to individuals, from the [nanny] government to help people cope with the high cost of gas. How is he gonna pay for it? Here's the quote: "That is why I am proposing that we pay for this rebate by taxing the windfall profits of oil companies so we can use some of their record profits to help families pay record prices." http://thepage.time.com/senator-barack-obama-announces-emergency-economic-plan/

First of all, those"excess" windfall profits are what pays the dividends to millions of working Americans through retirement accounts, pension plans and mutual funds. And Secondly, who gets to decide what "excess profits" are? The government, of course. Which we all love and trust. Anyhow, here's the facts about profits and taxes at Exxon last quarter:

According to CNN, Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter. That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second. Wow. That's a lot of money. But wait. . .

. . . Exxon Mobil paid $32.361 billion in taxes in the second quarter, which works out to $4,114 in taxes per second.

So Exxon Mobil's profit is a bit over 8% of sales, but the taxes they paid are over 23% of sales! So Exxon has already paid not quite three times more in taxes than they made in profit! And Obama wants to tax them more?! Holy moly.

And oh, by the way, corporations don't pay taxes. Yes, we have a corporate tax rate of 35% or so in the US, and yes, corporations do "pay" this money. But not really. In reality, corporations are just a collection agency for the government because they collect the 35% from me and you by adding that 35% to the cost of the item they're selling to us. It's embedded in the price so we don't even see it.

And Obama promises to take more and more. That means that you and me, not corporations, are gonna pay more and more. Or else our kids and grandkids will be paying it in the future through payments on our national debt.

Here's a simple graphic of how Obama's Plan will work:

Thanks to http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/how_obamas_plan_for_high_gas_prices_will_work/

Taxes. How Much Do You Really Pay?

Got this in from Willie of Tropical Tatt0o this morning.

It's a video from the folks for Ron Paul, but following the brief introduction you'll get a good accounting of how much you're really payin' in taxes. It starts with the corporate taxes [You do know that corporations do NOT pay taxes, doncha? They do? Oh, that's right, the current corporate taxe rate is 35% so the rich corporations pay 35% tax on their profits, right? Silly you - corporations don't pay taxes - they just pass the cost on to you and me and we pay those taxes in the retail price of things we buy.]

Following the corporate taxes, it goes on to show how much you and I pay. . . and pay. . . and pay. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2CH9gHrRD4

Hope it makes you mad as hell.

Gas Taxes on Rise?

As I write this, we're payin' $4 a gallon for gas, and it's in the middle of July. Prices have come down a little, perhaps because President Bush is using the bully pulpit to beat up Congress on off-shore drilling. No biggie on that - it's too little, too late - but now this little gem comes up:

Remember back in the Spring how our pandering senators and representitives were talkin' about a "Gas Tax Holiday" for ninty days to "help the American working people" travel through the summer? What a bunch of crap that was. Now those same congress people are queitly gonna stick us where the sun doesn't shine, yet again. They want a $ .10 per gallon tax increase on gas and diesel. Friggin' idiots - it's the same ol' status quo. Raise taxes quietly while shouting about "how much they care for the working people." I'm so over all these assholes I'm thinking about voting against every single incumbent. I don't care who's running against them, the new folks could NOT do any worse than what our current elected representives are doing to us.

We had an acronym in the Army: BOHICA. "Bend over. Here it comes again." Well that's what they're doin', quietly, while we have a million other problems that need to be addressed.

Anyhow, here's the link to the Gas Tax story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25751775/
Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.