A Tax Break for a Wealthy Monopoly

The waste of plenty is the resource of scarcity.
Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866), English author

President Bush has asked the American people to conserve gasoline. The shortage is caused primarily because there are not enough refineries to transform the oil into gasoline. By not building refineries, the oil companies where able to create a shortage scenario thus driving prices upward with no end in sight. Also, they can use this self-created shortage to say they need access into protected wilderness areas.

So far this year the oil companies have made billions in profits, but that is still not enough. No sir/madam, Bush now wants to give his extraordinarily wealthy friends a tax break to encourage refinery construction and expansion.

Maybe Putin’s idea of having the government control the oil companies is not a bad idea, unless of course the Bush gang is in office.