WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday rejected calls in Congress for a tax on oil company profits, saying the industry should reinvest its recent windfalls in finding and producing more energy.
"The temptation in Washington is to tax everything," Bush said in an exchange with reporters in the White House Rose Garden. Rather than for the government to reap the benefit from oil company profits driven by the recent surge in global oil prices, he said, "The answer is for there to be strong re-investment."
"These oil prices are a wakeup call," Bush said. "We're dependent on oil. We need to get off oil."
With gasoline topping $3 a gallon in some areas, Bush said energy companies should use their increased cash flows to build more natural gas pipeline, expand refineries, explore "in environmentally friendly ways," and invest in renewable sources of energy.
"That's what the American people expect. They also expect to be treated fairly at the pump," he said.
So Mr. President, if we're not suppose to tax these excessive profits from oil companies, then what are we suppose to do?
How about this:
Meanwhile, in the Senate, GOP leaders unveiled a 10-point plan aimed at soothing the growing election-year public anger over high gasoline prices.
Democrats, meanwhile, talked of suspending the 18.4-cent federal gasoline tax for two months to ease Americans' pain at the pump.
It included a $100 fuel-cost rebate for millions of taxpayers and proposals to rescind oil industry tax breaks enacted only eight months ago, and other measures.
But the plan also called for opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling — a longtime goal of several large oil companies operating on the Alaska North Slope — to the consternation of many Democrats and moderate GOP senators, who long have opposed such a move. The drilling provision all but assured the package would have a tough time getting approved.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the proposals for $100 rebates and suspending the gas tax each have merit and the Bush administration is analyzing them. "There's always the question of unintended consequences," Bodman told CBS' "Early Show" on Friday.
"The situation we have has been decades in the making," Bodman said, "and everything that can be done, that we know that works, this president is doing."
Yes, the Bush administration is starting to LOVE the $100 tax rebate to be given to all Americans as a way to offset the high gas prices--courtesy of the U.S. Treasury. And the $100 rebate checks come with an extra special Bushie treat--opening up ANWAR to Big Oil's drilling. We even have some bipartisanship here, with the Democrats talking about suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax for a couple of months--another courtesy of the U.S. Treasury. As for Big Oil?
Remember what Bush said about the rising gas prices?
"I know the folks here are suffering at the gas pump," the president said while promoting his competitiveness initiative at the Silicon Valley headquarters of Internet networking company Cisco Systems Inc. "Rising gasoline prices is like taking a--is like a tax, particularly on the working people and the small-business people."
But to address the immediate problem, Bush offered only a pledge that "if we find any price gouging it will be dealt with firmly."
And we can't forget this little Bush quote:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he is "concerned" about high gasoline prices, and pledged that the U.S. government will keep a close watch out for profiteering.
"I'm concerned about higher gasoline prices," Bush said at a Rose Garden news conference to name new staff appointments.
"The government has the responsibility to make sure that we watch very carefully and investigate possible price-gouging, and we will do just that," Bush said in unprompted remarks about energy prices.
Bush said high crude oil prices, rising summer driving demand and a switch to new motor gasoline standards is keeping gasoline prices high.
"It's tight supply worldwide and we've got increasing demand from countries like India and China, which means that any disruption of supply ... (is) going to cause the price of crude to go up," Bush said.
Can't blame Big Oil.
But President Bush is a strong believer in investment. Instead of taxing Big Oil's excessive profits, Bush says that "The answer is for there to be strong re-investment."
I guess this is what Bush means by strong re-investment:
In January, Exxon posted the highest quarterly profits of any public company in history: $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005 and $36.13 billion for the full year.
In the first quarter, net income rose to $8.4 billion, or $1.37 per share, from $7.86 billion, or $1.22 per share, a year ago. Excluding a gain on the sale of an interest in China's Sinopec, the company's year-ago profit was $7.4 billion, or $1.15 per share.
Exxon said it invested $4.8 billion in capital and exploration projects, a 41 percent increase from 2005.
Exxon also said it returned $7 billion to shareholders through dividends of $2 billion and buying back $5 billion worth of shares.
So Exxon invested $4.8 billion in capitol and exploration projects, and $7 billion in dividends and stock repurchases. And while we're at it, check out Chevron's earnings:
SAN RAMON, Calif. - Chevron Corp.'s first-quarter profit soared 49 percent to $4 billion, joining the procession of U.S. oil companies to report colossal earnings as lawmakers consider ways to pacify motorists agitated about rising gas prices.
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Chevron released its results Friday after two of its biggest rivals, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp., already provoked public outrage with similarly large first-quarter profits. Combined, the three oil companies earned $15.7 billion during the first three months of the year. That's 17 percent more than the trio made during the same time last year when they went on to pocket a combined profit of nearly $64 billion.
"All these companies have so much money, they don't know what to do with it," said Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit.
Yes Mr. President--looks like we're developing a strong re-investment of our energy program.
But I shouldn't just carp on the President here. We've got some more hypocrisy coming from Congress these days. First, let's go back to this letter that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert wrote to President Bush:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congressional GOP leaders on Monday formally called on President Bush to launch an investigation into possible price gouging by oil companies, as gas costs shot up nearly 25 cents a gallon in two weeks.
"Anyone who is trying to take advantage of this situation while American families are forced into making tough choices over whether to fill up their cars or severely cut back their budgets should be investigated and prosecuted," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, wrote in a letter to President Bush. "Therefore, we believe that Federal law enforcement agencies and regulators should take every available step to ensure that all Federal laws protecting American consumers from price-fixing, collusion, gouging and other anti-competitive practices are vigorously enforced."
And what has the House done? Check this out:
WASHINGTON - Lawmakers are walking a tightrope. With gasoline prices soaring they want to appear tough on oil companies.
But apparently not too tough.
While congressional Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate promised to roll back billions of dollars in tax breaks for major oil companies, the House in a largely symbolic vote Thursday seemed to move in the other direction.
House Republicans refused to go along with a proposal that called on House members to accept a Senate-passed repeal of $5 billion worth of oil industry tax breaks. They are the subject of intense negotiations between the House and Senate on a broad tax bill.
A resolution urging House negotiators to accept the Senate tax proposals failed 232-190, with only two Republicans voting for it.
I don't know yet who the two Republicans are that voted for the Senate tax proposals, but I can pretty much guess it wasn't Dennis Hastert.
And now one final note of Republican hypocrisy:
House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Ill., left, sits in the passenger side of a hydrogen powered alternative fueled vehicle, drive by General Motors engineer, Mike Miller, after a news conference at a local gas station in Washington, Thursday, April 27, 2006 to discuss the recent rise in gas prices. Hastert and other members of Congress drove off in the Hydrogen-Fueled cars only to switch to their official cars to drive back the few blocks back the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)Here's Denny switching cars:
House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Ill., center, gets out of a Hydrogen Alternative Fueled automobile, left, as he prepares to board his SUV, which uses gasoline, after holding a news conference at a local gas station in Washington, Thursday, April 27, 2006 to discuss the recent rise in gas prices. Hastert and other members of Congress drove off in the Hydrogen-Fueled cars only to switch to their official cars to drive the few blocks back to the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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