Fascists In Congress

The AP reports on the latest congressional nanny-statism:

Top executives of three major oil companies will be asked by senators next week why some of their industry's estimated $96 billion in record profits this year shouldn't be used to help people having trouble paying their energy bills.

Are our esteemed senators too simple to realize that the answer to this question is, quite simply, that oil companies aren't in business to help people pay their energy bills? (After all, isn't that what big-spending statists in Congress are for?) This is no different than expecting Pizza Hut to lower its prices because some people go hungrier than they'd prefer.

It might be comforting to know that most of our senators currently lamenting "record profits" of oil companies are disturbingly naive, but I'm afraid we're not so fortunate. Alas, every one of them understands that it's politically profitable to exploit idiotic Americans who actually believe corporations have an obligation to subsidize the livelihood of their customers. Worse, they're perfectly comfortable to diminish individual freedoms and expand government in order to give the impression that they actually care about anyone but themselves.

The AP reports some of the prevailing wisdom circulating around Congress today as it concerns energy prices:

[] Sen. Charles Grassley [], R-Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, said oil companies "should do their part" and donate some of their third-quarter earnings to low-income families and senior citizens having trouble paying energy bills, including high heating bills this winter. Grassley cited industry analysts as estimating that the 29 major oil and gas companies are expected to earn $96 billion this year.

"You have a responsibility to help less fortunate Americans cope with the high cost of heating fuels," Grassley, whose committee deals with tax legislation, wrote in a letter to the chief of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's lobbying arm. He also said companies should invest more of their profits in exploration and production and refining capacity to increase supplies.

Earlier in the day, Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., renewed their call for passage of a windfall profits tax on oil companies. They hoped to put such a proposal — a 50 percent tax on the sale of oil over $40 a barrel — into a tax bill later this month, they said. The revenue would be given to consumers in form of an income tax rebate.

These huge profits "come as a windfall, falling into the laps of the big oil companies with little or no additional effort or expense," argued Dorgan.

[...]

House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., urged oil companies to invest more earnings in new refineries and — in answer to a question at a news conference — did not rule out taxing oil company windfall profits. [Sen. Bill] Frist said Congress should consider a federal energy price-gouging law.

Just so we're clear, these sentiments belong to congressmen on both sides of the political aisle, which indicates just how determined this government is to control the actions of private citizens and corporations, not to mention how ignorant of basic economics and individual liberty most Americans must be to even allow such behavior to occur.

At least socialists believe government should produce the products it controls and regulates. It is the fascist who is content to endure a mixed economy where private individuals are expected to produce through their own creativity and efforts the goods and profits he can then confiscate through fiat for his own personal gain.