President-elect Barack Obama has sensibly shelved plans to institute his own version of the controversial windfall profits tax.
Good call, Mr. President-elect. This ill-conceived tax was a bad idea when first proposed and implemented 30 years ago. It hasn't improved with age.
Obama's windfall tax proposal was removed from his Web site this week and a spokesman confirmed it was dropped because of dramatic changes in the price of oil. The price of oil has fallen $100 since last summer, when then-candidate Obama started to press the idea. Oil company profits were to be transferred to consumers in an "emergency energy rebate" of $500 for individuals and $1,000 for families.
U.S. consumers are already beginning to receive those rebates, thank you — and with an efficiency unimaginable for a government program. As pump prices have slid from more than $4 to less than $2 over the past several weeks, the rebates have come with every fill-up. This is real money — $40 or more for every 20-gallon fill-up.
Damn, this has GOT to be a sign of the apocalypse. A Democrat deciding not to put another tax in place, AND a major media outlet agreeing with it! And then, for good measure, they even admit the market is working better than any government program to "fix" it could! I must say it's damn nice to be able to fill up my truck with $30 instead of $60. Now, maybe the President-elect will get another dose of reality and realize that the lifting of the moratorium on offshore drilling helped that price go back down as well. We'll see how that one goes, but I for one have gotten quite a chuckle out of how plans have changed since the election. It'll be interesting to watch, that's for sure.
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