John McCain on a windfall profits tax, in his speech on energy policy delivered in Houston yesterday:
So what does Senator Obama support in energy policy? Well, for starters he supported the energy bill of 2005 — a grab-bag of corporate favors that I opposed. And now he supports new taxes on energy producers. He wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes he also plans for coal and natural gas. If the plan sounds familiar, it’s because that was President Jimmy Carter’s big idea too — and a lot of good it did us. Now as then, all a windfall profits tax will accomplish is to increase our dependence on foreign oil, and hinder exactly the kind of domestic exploration and production we need. I’m all for recycling — but it’s better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970s.
John McCain on a windfall profits tax, speaking just over a month ago in Charlotte, N.C.:
I don’t like obscene profits being made anywhere. 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 — or industries or corporations — that are distorting the markets.
