Ooops - The
American Thinker [
sic] sticks its foot in it again. You remember the American Thinker? One of its writers was last week's
Wingnut of the Week over at Agitprop. This week, in a breathless article about how NPR (!!) has admitted that oil companies aren't raking in the dough, the Thinkster comes up with
this about the component costs of a gallon of gas:
Then, Horsley raised a cost that few media are willing to acknowledge:
“The balance of the price is taxes—about 55 cents.”
Oil companies pay taxes? I thought none of Bush and Cheney’s friends pay taxes. Well, we'll get to that later. But, before we do, using Horsley’s numbers, $2.79 out of the $2.90 that folks are currently paying for a gallon of gasoline are oil companies’ costs.
OK, so the author, Noel Sheppard, might be saying ... what? Rich people pay taxes at the pump too? Um, nope:
Yet, apart from addressing any of ExxonMobil’s almost $74 billion in expenses in the first quarter, ABC also chose not to report the $7 billion in income taxes – I promised we get back to this – the oil giant paid to the federal government. In fact, as the Media Research Center’s Rich Noyes pointed out at NewsBusters.org that same day, ExxonMobil’s total tax bill in the first quarter – when factoring in income taxes, excise taxes, and “other taxes” – was $25 billion, or fully three times its profits.
So this means ... the 55 cents of excise taxes charged on each gallon of gas is paid by the oil companies? Wow - wait until all the consumers who actually pay those taxes to the states and the federal government find out! We'll all get our money back! Thanks American Thinker!