Reply #22: This may very well be a good thing [View All]

If we were to successfully pass big taxes on the oil giants, the inevitable gas price increases would be blamed on the tax-and-spend liberals. It would be ALL our fault (according to them) and they'd whip up the duped conservative poor and everyone else they could and that would REALLY hurt come election time. Gas prices are going up, simply because there's increased demand for decreasing supplies. The worldwide denial of this obvious trend is breathtaking, and there's no denying this fact. Wait 'til gas is $6 a gallon; that's going to really hurt, and it'll be better if we haven't tampered with the pampered at that point because it'll be obviously THEIR fault.

I hate it too that the big oil companies are making gluttonous profits and screwing everybody, but short of putting profit caps in place, I don't see a way to politically rein them in without it all coming crashing down on the Dems. Even profit caps are a problem: it's a sin against the god of capitalism to limit someone's ability to fleece others, and the reactionaries know how to blame us for anything of the sort.