Bringing a taste of totalitarianism to America's Dairyland.

I like the idea of oil closing in the state. It need only happen once and it would become very clear that doing crap like this doesn't work. However it would be spun by the media and the oil companies would get the blame. This would quickly be followed by a herd of moonbats promising that they would NEVER let this happen if elected and promising to punish those responsible.

Van Helsing wrote:

"Doyle wants the cash for the state's transportation fund, which is low on funds because he took $427 million out of it to spend on education, which usually means raising the salaries of school administrators in appreciation of their political support".

Bull's eye!

In the late Forties and Early Fifties, the US government thought it would be a great idea to collect a 20% (Off the top) tax from movie theaters. A couple of thousand theaters closed, owners went into debt, related businesses were hurt, non-movie businesses like drug stores and diners, were hurt, employment dropped and tax revinues fell.

Learn from history, OR ELSE!

KHarn, can you provide a source for that claim?

I think it's horrendous that fat-cat oil execs are getting so extremely filthy rich at the expense of the average Joe who has to fill up his pickup to get to work to feed his family. But the solution is regulation and enforcement of that regulation. Monopolistic practices, price fixing, etc. are all regulated. Not crazy taxes, not threats of jail time.

Just jumping in to grab the money from big oil is punishing the wrong people. The fat cats are never, ever going to be hurt by that. In fact, they will be the last to be affected by it. Consumers who can't get gas will be affected, employees losing their jobs will be affected, but the ones responsible will just lay people off or sell in a different market.

It sickens me that oil execs, as well as others in the chain, right back to OPEC, are all taking advantage of us with higher prices. OPEC raises it's prices by X amount, oil companies raise their prices by X + Y amount, so they see an extra profit as well, and hope the extra cost just blends in.

But in the end, taking their money away a la Clinton 2 is not the answer, and charging this tax with the threat of jail time is not the answer. It will hurt the wrong people.

A free market is a tricky thing, and in fact quite a lot of government regulation is necessary to keep it free, free from corruption. But at the heart of it is the idea that supply and demand will, and should, govern price.

Econ 101 should be required for all policy makers, apparently it's been ousted in favor of Capitalism Is Evil 101.

I really think that the Democrats have every right to want to attack Big Oil. But the way they're going at it is all wrong. They look stupid when they want to try to cheat and steal form the Big Oil's profits. If they want to take a bite out of Big Oil, the Democrats need to become a competitor. They need to encourage and push alternative energies (ethanol, wind, solar, electric cars, commuter trains, mass transit, etc.). This will in turn eat into the Big Oil profits and cause them to tumble. Democrats need to get serious and attack Big Oil in a reasonable manner, not by acting like robin hood.