Exxon supposedly made $1,400 a second in profits but paid $4,000 a second in taxes. So, who's really making the obscene profits here?

ABC's Gibson Attempts Guilt Trip on Exxon CEO | NewsBusters.org

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Wrong.

XOM: Income Statement for EXXON MOBIL CP - Yahoo! Finance

In 2007, Exxon made $40.61 billion ($1,287.73 per second) and paid $29.864 billion in taxes ($946.98 per second, not $4,000 per second).

Either way, one should compare profits to profits, if we do that, we'll find that Big Oil is making "obscene profits" and big government is losing money.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

And that is net profits, not gross.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

Also his claim that the company costs $1 billion a day to run is grossly off, by about $130 billion a year. In 2007, it cost them $233 billion to run, or $638 million a day, just a little short of the claimed $1 billion a day.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

I said "supposedly" (various politicos were claiming it was $1,400 per second). Besides, I actually heard the part of the interview where the guy from Exxon specifically said $4,000 per second.

Oh, and how the hell is the government LOSING money: it's not their damned money to begin with???

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Yes, I saw in the article that he said that (in quotes), but the company income statements reveal something a little difference.

Whether it is their money or not is personal opinion. But fact is that they are netting a negative and increasing the debt.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

What is obscene is each and every last single time there is a Highway Bill before Congress what they are supposed to be doing is spending gas taxes strictly on improving highways. Since that is the infrastructure big oil needs to make their obscene profits, I approve of the concept, but may not approve of how much is going into the gas taxes. Each time the bill is passed, they spend MORE than what they take in with just gas taxes. Then the bill is bloated with pork projects before it finally goes to the president for a signature.

My bottom line is that I do not support the near monopoly status of the biggest two or three oil corporations. Republicans refusing to eliminate subsidies is obscene. The pork is obscene. The spending is obscene. And finally ExxonMobile breaking their own record for profits by any US corporation for any quarter in history while the elderly and working poor are pushed over the brink of barely surviving to the point of dumpster diving for food and having to make a choice between eating and heating in winter or airconditioning in summer.

In 2006 for the first time the Forbes 400 richest Americans list included all billionaires. The discrepancy between the super rich and the poor in this country is obscene. And that includes the $25 million a year plus stock options given to the current ExxonMobile CEO and the $150 million plus stock options given to Lee Raymond, the former CEO. And I believe both are on that Forbes list.

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National Debt =

They're netting a negative because of the spending (and the devalued dollar), not because of the taxes.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Yes, so they aren't making a profit, so it is illogical to say they are making obscene profits.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

No, it's not illogical at all. What do people do with profits? One of the things they do is SPEND. So also, the government is making obscene profits and then spending it.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."