News of the... WTF?

ExxonMobil is expected to make over $10 billion in pure profit this quarter, thanks to the soaring gas prices. It will be far more money than any other corporation in our history has EVER made in a quarter. Last quarter they made $7.6 billion, which if I remember right was also a record. So what did our President do? He gave them a tax break! *blink* Wha?! Yep, they're the biggest moneymaker in the history of business and Dubya just gave them another tax break.

Now of course we know that part of the reason gas prices have soared is because of a deliberate strategy by ExxonMobil and other big oil companies. They've avoided investing in new production facilities for many years now so that supply would stay restricted. The tax break is said to provide incentives for them to invest in this production. Can't we find some other way to pressure these corporations besides giving them tax breaks? It's ridiculous. Our federal government is drowning in debt, but they give new tax breaks to the most profitable businesses in the world. We obviously shouldn't be giving them tax breaks, but perhaps we should be launching criminal investigations of their price fixing efforts. Our big oil companies are at least loosely working together to restrict supply.

I'm all for capitalism, but crap like this makes me have a better understanding of why people in some countries actually want their government to be in control of the energy production.