Oil Companies Deserve More Money!!!!!!

Oil Companies Really Suck. Let’s Give ‘Em More Money!!!!!

Exxon-Mobil made over $36 Billion in 2005! In fact, they made $9.9 Billion in the 3rd quarter of 2005. Shell only made $9 Billion in the 3rd quarter. And lightweights BP, Conaco, and Chevron only made $6.5 Billion, $3.8 Billion, and $3.6 Billion respectively in the 3rd quarter. That’s over $30 Billion in profits in one quarter alone!

In the 3rd quarter alone, the oil companies made profits that amount to $110 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. That is profits alone. Their gross income was much higher. Let’s see. My wife and I have four children. $110 per person per quarter equals about $37 per month per person. So each month, the oil companies make $222 in profit from my family alone. In fact, they probably make a lot more from me because I have high heating costs for my home and I have kids who are out on the roads burning up rubber and gas every day.

I hate to be an “I told you so,” but here I go....( I guess I don’t really hate being an “I told you so.”). This is what I said in my blog on December 12, 2005:

What is our legislature’s wise and compassionate response? “Well,” they say, “we will make it more difficult for the gas companies to shut off the heat during winter.” Wow. Gimme a seat before I fall!

Don’t they see how short-sighted their answer is? Great. We get people through the great heating crunch of 2005-2006. Their gas can’t get shut off until April or May. When will they be able to pay the bills? Maybe never. So....what happens next year when heating season rolls around? The gas companies aren’t the bad guys because they aren’t shutting people off during the heating season, they are just refusing to turn the gas back on for the poor people who still can’t pay last year’s bills.

The effects of this year’s winter will be devastating for many, many people whose budgets are stretched before the heating season starts. I can only pray that the people that run the government will not turn a blind eye to the poor and needy and will resist the urge to put in stop-gap measures that just delay the time when the piper must be paid. In the meantime, I’ll start cutting up the dining room table for kindling.

Well, it has happened. Based upon the fact that there is a huge number of people who cannot pay their heating bills this year, our Congress has just introduced legislation to give the poor and needy $1 Billion in additional heating assistance to help pay the devastating heat bills from this past winter. That’s right. $1 Billion in additional assistance.

But let me ask you this. Why should I have to pay the big oil companies record prices for their products so that they can make record profits and then turn around and pay higher taxes to help needy people pay their gas bills? Isn’t this just another $1 Billion subsidy for Exxon-Mobil and the other oil fatcats? I just don’t get it. If our government had any power over the oil companies, they would say, “Listen, dip into your $30+ Billion 3rd quarter profits and fork over $1 Billion to help the poor.” That would be less than 3% of their 3rd quarter profits! I think that they could tighten their belts and make it without too much discomfort.

It seems criminal to foist the burden of unpaid oil and gas bills on the general public when we are the ones already getting fleeced by the big oil companies, especially since that same $1 Billion is only a fraction of the profits raked in by the oil companies last year.

Blawgerman