On my plane ride this weekend to Las Vegas for a birthday celebration, I picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal, and saw this story on how the Senate may consider a windfall profits tax on Big Oil - a proposal that Democrats are now pushing. What was interesting about the story was not its coverage of the issue - but of just how deeply-ingrained a Big Business-mentality today's media really approaches stories with.
The Journal notes that "while a populist political penalty may clear the Senate" (ie. the windfall profits tax), "there's no sign such measures are gaining in the more pro-business House of Representatives." But here's the real question - what is "pro-business" about letting the oil companies continue to rip off the rest of the economy? The fact is, the oil industry is not just bilking individual Americans - its profiteering is hurting many other businesses.
What we see here is that the term "pro-business" is now used by the media to describe anything that permits profiteering - regardless of whether it is actually "pro-business." Sure, allowing oil industry profiteering may be "pro-oil industry" - but it is certainly not "pro-business" as a whole.
When it comes to our corporate controlled government, David Sirota is always smack dead on!
I note that today, leaders in the oil industry are before the Senate, trying to defend their obnoxious quarter profits.
Together the companies earned more than $25 billion in profits in the July-September quarter as the price of crude oil hit $70 a barrel and gasoline surged to record levels after the disruptions of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
There is a growing call for support of a windfall profit tax on the oil industry, and these boys are scrambling to save their big bucks. I am sure that is the prime reason for the recent 34 cent drop over the past month.
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