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The News Herald, Panama City, Fla., Phil Lucas Column

Posted on: Monday, 1 May 2006, 15:01 CDT

By Phil Lucas, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

Apr. 30--THE NATION'S WELL COMES IN -- PRICES GO UP: We hit a gusher last week. It flowed from our great orators, our statesmen, our wise men, every flaming flagon of flatulence embedded on the Potomac -- a limitless supply of cheap gas.

If only we could bottle it.

Some Americans are upset at the price of gasoline. The cost of idling their engines in the drive-through lanes waiting for super-sized Slappy Meals has got out of hand.

Heads must roll.

The president, a wellhead unto himself, proposed a plan to pacify the rabble.

Senators and congressmen issued forth. The Washington Post reported that a gaggle of them gathered at a gas station press conference. They waxed hot against the oil companies, piled into their SUVs and journeyed back to their offices -- one block away.

Pols in the U.S. House of Ill Repute held a weekly caucus. Tops on the agenda? The cost of gasoline. The Post: "The House driveway was jammed with cars, many idling, including eight Chevrolet Suburbans."

Puffed up in political buffoonery, saturated in collectivist drivel, they spoke, Republicans and Democrats both, proving again that a skunk by any name smells as sweet.

Adding drama to the carnival was oil company profits. They are up, making easy marks for those who exploit a citizenry that cannot grasp the concept of profit margin. Banks and drug companies, as do many other businesses, make more than twice the profit of oil companies.

Nevertheless, politicians propose.

They want a "windfall" tax on oil companies. We tried this 25 years ago. Subsequent studies showed it reduced domestic oil production and raised oil imports. Even government saw it was bad -- after the fact.

The president would eliminate oil company tax breaks. In other words, raise their taxes.

Any increase in business taxes raises costs and then prices, as in the cost of a gallon of gasoline, the very thing we do not want.

But politicians would love it. That would give them more tax money from our pockets to throw away.

The president also wants to flush more money down the corn and ethanol scam. American taxpayers subsidize this. Then, when ethanol is produced, we pay for that, too. Meanwhile, we have a 54-cent per gallon tax on imported ethanol to discourage imports and keep the price plump for our blood-sucking domestic producers. We pay for that, too.

Inept Republicans, sweating out the fall elections, proposed to buy Americans' votes by sending us $100 checks. That way, we can all stock up on cheap perfume to wear in our own houses of ill repute.

Oil companies make less that 10 cents profit on a gallon of gas. The federal government rakes in 18.4 cents. State and local governments skim off more.

If we get much more government "help," we might as well just send the IRS our paychecks and let them send back what they think we need.

Now that we have the hot air out of the way, let's look at why the price of gasoline is up.

Some Americans start boiling when an oil company, a producer, makes an $8 billion profit in a quarter. Yet they snooze as the federal government, a non-producer, counterfeits more than $15 billion a stinking WEEK.

We have a fiat currency and raging monetary inflation which has so destroyed the dollar that prices of commodities went up 30 percent and more in just the last year.

An OPEC oil minister said, "Our costs have tripled from two years ago due to high (commodity) prices. And it's not just that, it is also contractors who have tripled their prices."

The recovery, transport and refining of oil utilize materials and machines made from commodities: steel, concrete, copper, rubber, etc. As commodity prices triple, then triple again, producers must charge more for oil and gasoline. A LOT MORE.

Government and its fiat bank, the despicable Federal Reserve, are killing the dollar and all of us with it. They print money they did not earn, diluting every dollar the rest of us must.

The ones who made this mess, who make it worse daily, our spendthrift and thieving political pontificators, flock to press conferences and blame it on oil companies, car companies, consumers, on some capitalist pig somewhere.

On anybody but themselves.

Then they propose to steal more.

-----

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

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Source: The News Herald

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