It seemed as though Sen. Barack Obama was (thankfully) against shortsighted policy prescriptions when he opposed a gas tax holiday supported by Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain earlier in the summer. But, unfortunately, he's not. He recently announced a plan to give consumers $1,000 checks funded by a windfall profits tax on oil barrels traded at more than $80 by U.S. oil companies.
In a gesture blatantly aimed to buy new voters, Obama has reneged on his earlier stance against this foolish policy and conspired to hurt the hard-working Americans he purports to help. Though many economists have warned against the long-term ill effects that punitive taxes would have on new exploration and development, consumers have raged against the confluence of high oil prices and the high incomes of top oil executives. They want justice, but only partially deserve it.
The proportion of pay (awarded before corporate taxes) that goes to executives is miniscule compared to the profits that go to shareholders and the taxes that already go to the government. If people are concerned with the executives' millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses, they should support higher income taxes on the wealthiest bracket, not higher corporate taxes on specific businesses. These higher corporate taxes only hurt the ability of our domestic companies to compete with international companies and countries, push them into tax havens and hurt stockholders.
Obama, state workers and presumably private workers with pensions should realize what they are really doing when they punish oil companies. There's a lot at stake beyond those $1,000 checks.