Posted by
Always To The Right on Thursday, May 22, 2008 11:11:58 PM
Michelle Malkin • May 22, 2008 10:12 AM
Today on the Hill, lawmakers in both parties get a second chance to
strut and tut-tut as they harangue oil company executives about high
gas prices–and display their abject ignorance of, and hostility
towards, basic economic principles of supply and demand.
John Hinderaker at Power Line
has a good rundown of the back-and-forth between the businessmen who
make a living creating wealth and the politicians who tax and take it
away.
Read the whole thing.
Unfortunately, it’s not just gaseous Democrats demonizing oil companies as evil profiteers and crusading for punitive measures like the Carter-era windfall profits tax that Ronald Reagan valiantly battled.
The RNC rightly took on Obama’s support for the tax.
But here’s GOP presidential candidate John McCain in Charlotte, NC
Transcript:
MCCAIN: “Um, I don’t like obscene profits being made anywhere–and I’d be glad to look not just at the windfall profits tax–that’s
not what bothers me–but we should look at any incentives that we are
giving to people, that or industries or corporations that are
distorting the market.”
I warned you of
McCain’s class warrior rhetoric in January when he sneered at those who
embrace the profit motive and bashed “greedy” corporations who engage
in free enterprise.
Would Ronald Reagan ever stand up in front of the liberal media and Republican voters and inveigh against “obscene profits?”
Any pro-McCain trolls out there care to explain? 50 brownie “points” available now!
Background: IBD’s excellent overview of the windfall profits-taxing windbags here. The answer McCain should have given
See also: Jonah Goldberg, The Windfall Profits Tax Slap.