Obama Channelling Carter
Pretty soon there will be arena rock, Cheech & Chong movies and gas lines at the pump. Obama is pushing the Windfall Profits Tax. Guess it’s time to don your bell bottoms and boogie on down to the disco. The ‘70s are Baaack!
But seriously, the Wall Street Journal is not amused. It points out that Exxon’s profit margin is 10% and compares it to other industries.
If Senator Obama is as exercised about “outrageous” profits as he says he is, he might also have to turn on a few liberal darlings. Oh, say, Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett’s outfit pulled in $11 billion last year, up 29% from 2006. Its profit margin—if that’s the relevant figure—was 11.47%, which beats out the American oil majors.Or consider Google, which earned a mere $4.2 billion but at a whopping 25.3% margin. Google earns far more from each of its sales dollars than does Exxon, but why doesn’t Mr. Obama consider its advertising-search windfall worthy of special taxation?
The fun part about this game is anyone can play. Jim Johnson, formerly of Fannie Mae and formerly a political fixer for Mr. Obama, reaped a windfall before Fannie’s multibillion-dollar accounting scandal. Bill Clinton took down as much as $15 million working as a rainmaker for billionaire financier Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies. This may be the very definition of “windfall.”
Leave a comment