Tax Time for Some and Not Others

The Bernie Sanders Ten, per release....

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. - Chicago Sun Times

Just saying. Big business really needs a tax cut to create jobs. Nobody said where they would create them though did they? Like this on Facebook to speak loud and clear on the bullshit that is trickle down taxes. Big business pays less so that you can pay more. It works if you are a Republican! We all should endorse this plan of corporations making billions and paying little if no taxes to make more jobs anywhere but here in America because it is the right thing to do... NOT!

If you think it is wrong that big corporations pay little or no taxes and yet make billions of dollars in profits then please "LIKE" this and pass it on to everyone you know on Facebook!!!! Maybe we could balance the federal budget if everyone was on the same playing field! There is no common sense in this form of taxation. NONE!

Papamoka

McCain Offshore Oil Drilling Hype

I have to say that I’m not to sure that this is such a bad idea given certain conditions. Conditions like our government going nuts in tax breaks for solar research, wind power research, hydrogen and natural gas research as fuels for our nations cars, trucks and busses. If the government focuses as much attention to these energy sources as they have on oil then maybe then we can look at offshore drilling for the time being? At least for the time being while the research is going on and improving the science and network needed to functionally serve these new technologies. Back in the 1970’s we had the first oil crisis where our nation was held hostage by OPEC and in 2008 we have our nation held hostage by energy traders. It’s a known fact that there is not one single answer to changing the source or usage of our energy needs.

One of the biggest gripes against McCain making this trip to an oil rig is the fact that his largest campaign contributors are from most of the big oil companies. Many far more qualified people are saying that even if we start drilling off shore in a large scale it could be ten years before the results drop the cost of oil down even just a few pennies? What about the millions of acres in known oil rich locations on land, in the continental United States that the oil companies already have access too?

Over at the Houston Chronicle they have this story on McCain using an oil platform to back up his thoughts on offshore drilling…

McCain uses oil platform visit to promote more drilling
By PHILIP ELLIOTT Associated Press
Aug. 19, 2008, 2:54PM

ABOARD THE CHEVRON GENESIS — Republican presidential candidate John McCain visited this oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico today to call for increased offshore drilling that he claims would lower the cost of food and heating homes.
McCain traveled 130 miles by helicopter to tour the massive facility, which produces 10,000 gallons of oil each day. He criticized his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, for not supporting such a plan.

"He says it won't solve our problem and that it's, quote, not real. He's wrong and the American people know it," McCain told reporters.

Obama's campaign, meanwhile, called the four-hour excursion nothing more than a stunt. Obama supporter and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack compared McCain's position to the "Beverly Hillbillies" television program where the main character — Jed Clampett — stumbles onto an oil gusher. McCain, he said, has "a Jed Clampett energy policy."

McCain and his aides believe the pocketbook approach can connect with voters — and, in turn, suggest that Obama wants people to pay more for gas, food and heating. - Houston Chronicle

One of the things that keeps coming into my mind is that Senator McCain flew by helicopter 260 miles round trip to an oil platform offshore that is only producing 10,000 gallons of oil per day? That is a quote from the story by the AP. If my calculations are correct then that platform is only producing 182 BARREL’S of oil per day at 55 gallons per barrel? I’m not sure that mega platform is even going to pay for McCain’s helicopter ride with one days production. After refining and what have you, how many gallons of helicopter go-go juice do you get. I’m thinking that the helicopter is burning a hell of a lot more gas than your average Chevy pickup truck. I’m guessing that the AP story has a problem with checking facts and CNN has the rig producing 10,000 barrels a day which is a huge difference in numbers. Even still, go-go juice for any kind of chopper is not cheap and they eat the stuff up like its candy to a baby.

How much would you like to bet that the helicopter trip was free courtesy of Chevron? How much money do you think is going to flow into the McCain campaign coffers for this trip to the offshore oil rig? John McCain’s energy plan is a joke and everyone knows it. He’s even being dishonest with himself for the sake of the almighty dollars rolling into his campaign from big oil companies. John McCain knows that any effort to put offshore oil drilling rigs in the Atlantic will be shot down in the Senate by every single state with a shoreline to the Atlantic. If putting up a wind farm off the coast of my home state in Massachusetts was a battle, you have not seen anything in comparison of battles if there is even one remote possibility that the fishing industry off the Atlantic coast were ever harmed by any form of oil drilling disaster or leak. Hurricane Katrina destroyed 113 offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and the environment and the fishing industry paid the highest price for that natural disaster. Over at the Washington Post they have this to say about offshore oil rig disasters from Katrina…

McCain and the Safety of Offshore Drilling
By Michael D. Shear

In an energy speech recently, McCain said that: "As for offshore drilling, it's safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston."

In fact, Katrina and Hurricane Rita caused damage to oil rigs and storage facilities in the Gulf, according to press reports and government studies.

The hurricanes totally destroyed 113 oil rigs, according to the government's Minerals Management Service, and damaged 457 pipelines. The resulting oil spills were large enough to be seen from space, according to several reports. - Washington Post

Offshore oil drilling is not the only answer to the energy crisis we are facing courtesy of Wall Street investors. Research into many other avenues and looking at the possibilities of new forms of energy is the answer. The top three are Solar Power, Wind Power, and Natural Gas. All of which this nation has an overall abundance of. Does McCain talk about these energy sources? Yes he does but his heart and soul is brought to you courtesy of big oil and free helicopter rides to their offshore oil platforms.

McCain, McSame, McBush, McRove, whoever the hell he is today does not have the answer or even a valid plan for the next couple of decades and our nations energy needs. It is becoming apparent that McCain’s plan is more of the same and screw you. Thank you very much and please donate to the McCain for President campaign. NOT!!!

McCain himself and his actions, statements, and just disregard for the truth are the loudest and clearest reason why people should vote for change and Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

Related Links:
Ocean View Helicopters has info on Helicopter MPG
T. Boone Pickens Plan actually has a plan to break the oil crisis
Think Progress has this on what Katrina did to Oil Rigs

Cross posted at Bring It On!

Papamoka

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People vs. OPEC

I’m sure that all across corporate America in the executive offices of the CEO’s of all the big oil companies could be heard one phrase today.

“Ut Ohhhhh!”

Congress today passed legislation allowing the creation of banks of lawyers to sue the pants off of OPEC members and investigate price gouging by any company. Of course the Commander in Chief is against this kind of legislation. Who’d of thought that? Over at the New York Times they have this on the subject…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.
The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules -- instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation. - New York Times

When it comes to the scales of justice here in the States it is basically a foregone conclusion that big oil interest have heavily tipped the scales against consumers. It looks to me like we finally will get a break and the powers that be on the exchange markets that set the market price for oil should start investing in shredders.

I’d be willing to pick up a few document threshers if they would be willing to drop the price of oil down to around fifty or sixty bucks a barrel. If they loan me a hundred bucks to fill my tank then I’ll even deliver the shredders.

Papamoka

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To the Center

*****Reuters has picked up this post!!

American Ingenuity on Oil’s Replacement

I’ve said it before on many posts on this site. The end of the strangle hold on America’s energy needs is nearing the end of the beginning. All of those back yard inventors of a better mouse trap when it comes to our fuel needs are coming out of the woodwork and the ones serious enough to believe in it will be successful.

One of the things I find interesting is that many of these backyard chemist, biologist, and guys that know how to work a mean wrench have on thing in common, not one of them thinks they will replace the Exxon’s of this world but they sure as hell will put a dent in their billion dollar profits year by year. And as these combined technologies all grow over time then the likes of Exxon will be the mega giant corporations that dared to think it was irreplaceable. Read more on this great article from Popular Science and Amanda Schaffer in the latest issue…

I’m watching this image on a computer screen at Amyris Biotechnologies in Emeryville, California, where one of the founders, biologist Jack Newman, is giving me a tour. The genetically manipulated E. coli before me are highly crafted units of industrial production, which Amyris is using to turn sugar into novel versions of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel—in other words, the fuels on which the world already runs. Amyris is one of a handful of young biofuel companies putting a brilliant and weird twist on the future of green. It’s betting that, with the help of bacteria, the long-term answer to our gasoline woes will actually be . . . gasoline.

Because as it stands, the main alternative to petroleum, ethanol (a type of alcohol), is fraught with problems. It can’t be pumped through current infrastructure because it tends to corrode pipelines. And according to University of Minnesota economist Jason Hill, even if all the corn grown in the U.S. were converted to ethanol, it would replace only some 12 percent of the 146 billion gallons of gasoline we use every year. Cellulosic ethanol—fuel produced from the cellulosic matter contained in plant stalks and stems rather than from seeds—would solve that problem, but the technology to produce it on a large scale is still a way off. Plus, ethanol simply isn’t as energy dense as petroleum-based fuels. - Popular Science

One of the things I find very warming to the spirit is that this research isn’t coming from the United States Government or sponsored by XYZ oil company. It’s coming from American’s with an attitude, American’s with a spirit and sense of what is right and what is wrong. It’s coming from a displaced sense of the American way of life. For the last eight years we as a people have been jerked around by circumstances beyond our control and if you know anything about Americans, we hate being told that the price of our greatest energy resource is beyond our control. That’s a tough pill to swallow and we American’s tend to hate having anything shoved down our throats. Even when it comes from within our own nation with the people we allow a free market to dictate prices.

This is an Energy Revolution and it is starting in garages, chemistry labs, brain storming sessions, and with individuals sick and tired of having the money they earned spent on fuels to run our vehicles or buying a gallon of milk for their families. That is an argument that will never be won when it comes to the hundreds of thousands of brilliant minds working today all across America to pretty much chuck the Middle East and all OPEC nations the bird.

This countries energy needs will pretty much be self reliant in twenty to thirty years. It’s not going to be easy and it isn’t something that can happen overnight or from any one technology. It will happen with one advancement at a time. Think of it as a slow strangling end to imported oil much like the horse and buggy day.

One last quote from the same Popular Science piece…

Before I leave, though, he shows me a painting he keeps in his office. It’s of a little boy leaping from one cliff to another across a chasm. The boy’s arms are stretched out. His head juts forward. “He isn’t even looking at the edge. He’s looking beyond the edge,” Reiling says. “He’s 100 percent committed to that jump. That’s what you’ve got to do when you’re going after something.”

You have my best wishes on success Amyris!

Papamoka

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