During last years campaign, as Exxon announced record setting profits, than, Senator Barack Obama said:
“No U.S. corporation ever made that much in a quarter,” Obama said. “But while Big Oil is making record profits, you are paying record prices at the pump and our economy is leaving working people behind.”
McCain’s response, Obama said, is to propose a corporate tax plan that would give “$4 billion each year to the oil companies, including $1.2 billion for Exxon Mobil alone” and a gas tax holiday that Obama said would only “pad oil company profits and save you — at best — half a tank of gas” over an entire summer.
This week, Wells Fargo, one of the banks that was forced to accept TARP fund reported record setting profits of $3 Billion. In regard to this amazing, government supported, excess profit, President Barack Obama said:
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Huh, no comment. Radio silence.
Wells Fargo was forced to take $25 billion from the government. An amount that its CEO didn’t want. Barack Obama complained venomously last year, about $4 billion provided to Exxon. However, $25 billion seems to be just OK.
If the truth be told, the $4 billion that was “given” to Exxon was really not “given” to Exxon. The $4 billion were largely accelerated depreciation on drilling assets, a pretty good policy if you want to encourage energy production. The money “given” to Exxon didn’t cost taxpayers a dime and in fact, if you consider that increased energy production has the effect of lowering energy prices, the taxpayer likely came out ahead.
On the other hand, the $25 billion dollars Wells Fargo was forced to accept is coming directly from the taxpayers pocket. If not today, certainly tomorrow in the form of the higher taxes that will be required to pay off the debt that was incurred to put this money into Wells Fargo.
Actually, in the world of Obama, Exxon and Wells Fargo are situations for which identical outcomes are being attempted. In both cases, Obama’s reaction, or lack of one, is a result of his desire to control the company or industry that the afflicted is in.
In Exxon’s case, Obama found the profits obscene. He proposed a windfall tax profit. He did this not just to enrich the treasury but to cow Exxon and other players in the industry into doing things his way. This is also a big reason why Obama wants a carbon tax or something similar. By increasing the costs on the energy companies he knows that energy costs will increase. There is no “alternative energy” that will do more than light a candle. With no real alternative, consumers will be soon condemning the energy companies just like they have been condemning banks and investment companies who they see as “deserving” the beat down they are getting.
In Wells Fargo’s case, Obama is oblivious to the profits and worse, seems uninterested in recovering the money that the American taxpayers have gone on the hook for. Obama is uninterested in Welss Fargo’s profit because he has already taken control of this industry and is uninterested in releasing that control.
Yes, President Obama’s actions can cause confusion to those who attempt to view situations from a logical perspective. Confusion until you remember that all of his actions are after the same end result, control of the enterprise that is in the cross hairs.
it should be clear to all that Dems sputtering about excess profits was never about the fairness of making a profit but an angle for exercising control over the private sector economy.
No need to beat up the banks for making money when the Dems already control them.