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Congress can not stand by while the oil companies are stealing from the American people

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 27 April 2006
7 comments

Economy-budget Energy USA

Kucinich: Only One Way To Stop Gouging At The Pump: 100% Excess Profits Tax
Kucinich On House Floor: “Congress Must Break The Hold That The Oil Companies Have On Politics” Pass The Gas Price Spike Act (HR 2070)

WASHINGTON - April 26 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), author of HR 2070, a bill to place a 100% excess profit tax on the oil companies, gave the following speech today on the House floor on the rising cost of gasoline:

“Congress must break the hold that the oil companies have on the politics of our country. The American people are demanding action. The price of gasoline has climbed to over $3 a gallon, heading towards $4 a gallon and maybe $5.

“Since 2001, the five largest oil companies have made over $280 billion in profits. Exxon Mobil alone made $36 billion in profits in the last year.

“There is only one way to stop the oil and gas companies from an endless series of increases in the price of gasoline.

“Almost fifty Members of Congress have now signed onto my bill, HR 2070, for a 100% excess profits tax on oil companies’ profiteering.

“This act does not tax the price of gasoline, so it will not increase the cost. However, by taxing excessive profits, it puts the brakes on price gouging and will lower the price of gasoline.

“Congress can not stand by while the oil companies are stealing from the American people.”
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0426-06.htm

Forum posts

  • Dennis Kucinich, I love you! You are a reason to hope. You’ve been such a beacon of steadfast caring and integrity. Thank God there’s someone with a heart in Congress.

    • Who’s kidding who? Do you really think those taxes will NOT be passed on to the consumer? Only a true idiot would believe that. As the ABBA song goes, “It’s a rich man’s world.” The Minnesota legislature is about to pass a sales tax to build a new baseball stadium for Carl Pohlad who is the 78th richest American and worth $2.8 billion. Their bill would override a requirement that the taxpayers be allowed to vote on the deal. The majority of the votes in Pohlad’s favor are Democrats. The strongest opposition is Republican. Pohlad will get his stadium. The oil companies will get their obscene profits. Anybody who thinks otherwise is a damn fool.

      Dennis a beacon of integrity? He sold his ass to John Kerry. Bah, humbug.

    • I forgot to mention, one of the sponsors of the Twin’s stadium bill is Representative Bill Hilty. He was a Kucnich delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 2004.

  • Hi Dennis, Im glad you are concerned...

    Oil scarcity is destined to collapse this society far sooner than you realise. The underlying problem is that man has now reached the limits that the earth can deliver oil, and starting now the oil supplies start slowly dwindling away with less available every year. This will pit the stronger nations, groups and individuals against the weaker, and the stronger will continue to get stronger as only they have the power that oil generates, while the poor will not.

    Couple of points to ponder:

    When you purchase a gallon of gasoline, the oil company gets about seven cents. The federal government gets 51 cents. I have never heard any accounting of this tax money; where is it going and what is it funding?? We are talking lots of money here...

    Our capitalistic economic system needs growth to suvive. Economic growth in the face of declining energy supplies is an impossibility. Hence, without a immediate cheaper energy production method, our dollar, and whole economic system is doomed.

    Also note that America consumes right at 25% of the worlds oil, while we only have 2% of the reserves.

    The food you eat if you are average means you have consumed almost 200 barrels per year in just its production and processing costs.

    Before the use of oil, Earth could never support more than half a billion humans, now there are 6.5 billion humans. Without oil or a better substitute within 40 years there will only be about half a billion survivors. This is a very conservative estimate..

    I urge you to do more research, as this issue is going to end the world as we know it. While you will be unable to do much to reduce the price of a increasingly scarce highly demanded commodity perhaps you can take steps to ease the effects of the transition and prevent some of the massive die off that oil scarcity will inevitably bring.

    Again, thanks for your concern...

    Dennis Hall Iprobealiens@hotmail.com

    • This man is a moron. If Congress really cared about lowering the price of gas they would lower or abolish taxation on gasoline. Increasing the taxes simply raises the cost of production/cost of gasoline. I swear, a prerequisite of holding office should be a basic understanding of economics. Some other politicians are calling for price fixing. I suppose they forget how well this worked when Jimmy Carter did it in the 70’s...

    • heh that’s funny. That’s what Harry Reid is trying to do. You must be a democrat lol.

      What a load of crap- do you believe everything that Rush Limbaugh tells you?

  • only way you can bring the price of gasoline is by stop using gasoline.prices come down when there are no buyers.