Dems propose 'Reasonable Profits Board' to regulate oil company profits

What Constitution are these jerks working with? What ever happened to free enterprise? Obama says that energy prices will necessarily rise under his policies. He restricts production and use of domestic energy sources and then he and his cohorts blame the oil companies for the high prices. The government gets more profit from a gallon of gas than the oil companies do, and the companies do all the work. It is time we put sunset laws on these oath breakers.

Excerpt: Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits.

The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.

The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding "a reasonable profit." It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress.

The bill would also seem to exclude industry representatives from the board, as it says members "shall have no financial interests in any of the businesses for which reasonable profits are determined by the Board."



I had to reprint a great Mikelee comment from The Hill article:

This is great- now we need a "Reasonable Spending Board" to monitor our Congress. We need a "Reasonable Ethics Board" to punish members of Congress who use their office to enrich themselves. A "Reasonable Taxation Board" to prevent the government from taking too much of our money.

We can have a "Reasonable Earnings Board" to take money from actors and musicians who make too much money on their movies and records. A "Reasonable Athlete Salary Board" to make sure athletes don't make too much money. A "Reasonable Executive Compensation Board" to make sure people like Franklin Raines don't make hundreds of millions while bankrupting taxpayer funded companies.

We have truly entered the twilight zone and Orwell must be spinning in his grave. The day the government gets to decide what a "reasonable profit" is for private companies we have allowed our politicians and federal government to become far too powerful.

Going after oil and gas companies is all about politics. They are not the preferred industries so their profits can be attacked. Why not go after Apple's profits or Microsoft? Their profit margins are higher.

The American people cannot allow our government to engage in this type of abject tyranny. It's the most un-American thing I can imagine. What's next- the government forcing all citizens to buy products and services from private companies?

The America of our founders and forefathers is disappearing before our eyes.