#831 Oil and Grease

Ya just gotta wonder sometimes if the oil companies used some grease to get the politicos to ease off. Last year at this time we were paying about 2.95 a gallon for gas. This year people are capering with joy because gas just went down to 3.95.
As my friend Bobby put it in Bobby’s Blog on 945roxy.com “Operation-make-‘em-wish-for-four-dollar-a-gallon-gas is almost complete.”
Exxon just declared their biggest profits in history, 11.68 billion dollars. To people used to talking in trillions when it comes to the American economy as a whole, that may not seem like much. What’s 11 billion here or there? But that’s 11 billion of profits. They took in some serious coin. It works out to $1485.55 a second. That’s right folks, almost 1500 dollars a second.
Now there are certain political candidates out there that will try to tell you it’s the gas tax that’s causing the problem. Especially the additional gas tax working its way up to 9 whole cents a gallon passed by the state legislature—by, you know, a majority of votes of duly elected representatives.
That 9 cents a gallon, (compared to the dollar-plus a gallon the oil companies reamed us for) was to be used to improve transit and roads.
Well, here’s where the government screwed up. They taxed gas by the gallon, not by the price. It isn’t a sales tax in the conventional sense. It’s not based on a percentage of the price.
So whether the oil companies bend me over and make me pay an addition dollar a gallon or an additional dollar-fifty a gallon I still pay the government 9 cents.
So guess what? Now that me and everyone else are driving less because we can’t afford gas, we’re using fewer gallons and paying less tax, and the big state projects that are supposed to ease gridlock are being seriously underfunded.
So where, my friends, is the outrage being directed? At the duly elected 9 cents requestors, not the I’ll screw you whether you like it or not big oil bullies. That’s like blaming the chocolate sprinkles for all the calories in a half-and-half mocha
1500 dollars a second. That buys a lot of grease somewhere...
America, ya gotta love it.