>>12.7 billion dollars in "deferred income taxes". ... So that would mean that when you say they "turned over 46%" of their profits, that might not be exactly so. No, Deferred income taxes are a liability, they will eventually be paid.<<
8bits -
I didn't say they would never have to be paid. But if they are deferred, then they haven't been "turned over", have they? Instead, these companies are able to use that money for their own purposes.
The IRS doesn't allow me to make that choice, I notice.
I agree that Congress has hatched some hare-brained schemes with respect to oil prices. Suing OPEC, as I said when that story broke, is a really stupid idea. Bush, of course, beat Congress to the idea of just begging OPEC to step up production.
Still, while there are a lot of areas in the US that are not available for oil drilling, there are other areas that are available. I'd like to see the oil companies stop whining about the closed areas, and start exploiting the open ones, if they're so hard up for supplies.
- Allen |
