How Does Raising Taxes on Oil Companies Lower Gas Prices?

Question

Who will the people blame when gas prices shoot up 40 cents per gallon?

Granted the price of gas is not a direct relation to the price of oil... but it's a huge factor. If everything else stays constant, raising taxes will ALWAYS raise the price of gas.

Answer 1

The libs will blame Bush. Thats their scapegoat. The rest of America just has to accept that fact and try their best to ignore it. Raising taxes has NEVER correlated with lower prices. Its simple economics, something the Dems don't have a strong grasp of

Answer 2

Thinking of the tax hike, if it reaches the pump, is to cause a weakening demand for gas, causing the increasing of the oil surplus, and thus lessening the dependents on oil. Like Communism this all looks good in theory and on paper yet gives the consumer the raw end of the deal. Hopefully they will discover the hypocrisy in this theory, instead of giving it serious thought.

I agree, if anything should be done, the oil companies should not be given tax breaks they should take the bite solely upon them selves and not pass it to the consumer. If they don't they make the economy that much weaker, not to mention there are other ways to fight the problem, like taxing one with a SUV more than one that has a coupe. It will still not be good to some, still there are other ways that one can think of.

bush is the one to blame, waging a 6 year war is not cheap.

Answer 3

the price of gas has less to do with the price of oil, as it does with the output at the refineries. the refiners are more responsible for the price of gasoline than the oil companies are.

I keep hearing people yell,"it is simple supply and demand!" well yes it is, but not in the way many people think it is.
refiners have a margin they want to make, and increasing supply so gas prices will go down, isn't the best decision economically for the refiners.

the price of oil has more to do with speculation than anything else. if people see a tax might be dropped on it, they attribute that with loss in stock value. guess what happens to the price of oil??

might i point out that oil has dropped, once again to the near $50 a barrel range, and gas hasn't dropped accordingly, has it?
how easy it is to forget what the price of gas was last time oil was at this rate, but it wasn't as high as it is now.

Answer 4

Since the gas companies (refiners, distributors - not the producers of crude oil) have been recording record profits, in some cases doubling their profits year over year, it seems strange that they need special exemptions from tax.

Removing those exemptions is not the same as a tax increase.

Now that the seated Congress is no longer beholden to the gas and oil industry for their campaign funding - the fear of congressional investigations of price fixing should have prices falling.

Answer 5

no one is raising the taxes on Oil Companies. They are considering removing the "tax breaks" that companies that are generating record billions in income. Why do you feel that overly wealthy companies should get more tax breaks than you do???

Answer 6

It should be obvious to anyone with at least a room temperature IQ that it does nothing of the kind. Whatever the costs of a product (and taxes are obviously a cost), the consumer always pays.