Red State/Blue State
Is it time to put the fat cats on a profit diet?
DAVE SIMPSON & GREG BEAN

A political discussion between Red State conservative Dave Simpson - a former reporter, editor, publisher and columnist - and Greg Bean, Blue Stater and executive editor of GreaterMedia Newspapers. Let us know what you think.

Dear Greg:

Twenty-three years ago, when I was an underpaid newsman with a wife and two little kids, a stockbroker talked me into buying 60 shares of Exxon stock at $53 a share.

It wasn't like we had $3,180 to throw around- most of ourmoney was tied up in diapers and canned goods- but we figured we ought to be investing for our future. That was the last time everyone was telling us Social Security was in trouble, and we better not count on it.

You rememberme fromthose days, don't you, Greg? I bought my clothes at Mark's Work Warehouse, drove a beat-up orange Ford pickup with 126,000 miles on it, and my wife drove an old Capri with no heater and a missing windshield wiper. When the kids outgrew their clothes, we hit the garage sales.

All the dividends from that stock went toward buying more Exxon stock. Slowly but surely, the total grew, and several times there were splits. For the most part, it has been a boring stock. When people talked about "windfall oil profits,'' Iwonderedwhat the heck they were talking about.

But, amazingly, over time, that $3,180 investment grew to the point that it could now support us for about a year, if we had to sell it.

I bring this up because I heard Barack Obama, your election fave, say, "I know it won't be easy to change our energy policy. Exxon-Mobil made $11 billion last quarter. They don'twant to give those profits up easily.''

Give those profits up?

What's the deal with that, Greg? Suddenly your guy sounds less like JFK and more like Hugo Chavez.

Apublisher I once knew interviewed all reporting candidates.His last question was always this: "Should a company be able to make a profit?'' He said you'd be amazed how many young reporters answered "no,'' and didn't get the job. We've got a lot of short-pants socialists out there who don't believe in freemarket capitalism, especially in our business.

Despite my tiny chunk of Exxon, I'm still no fat cat. These days I drive a van with 138,000 miles on it, and I'd still shop at Mark's Work Warehouse if I could find one. But, I will admit thatmy wife now has a car with windshield wipers that work, and it has a heater.

It's great to knock the big oil companies at campaign time, but I'mwonderingwhere your liberal friends will get the gasoline to drive to the Save the Whales Rally after President Obama dismantles companies like Exxon-Mobil.

Exxon-Mobilmakes a lot of profit, Greg, but they also pay a lot of taxes. That's money your liberal pals get to jam down every silly rat hole they can think up.

How come your Democrat friends are so big on "investing'' in social programs, but so down on investing in American business? Answer me that.

Simply put, Greg, you and your bigspending Democrat friends can have my Exxon-Mobil profits when you pry my cold, dead fingers from around them.

Have a nice day,

Red State Dave

Dear Dave:

I've read your note through three or four times, and I think I finally understand it. Tell me if I'm reading it wrong.

What you're saying is that we ought to let big companies like Exxon-Mobil rape and pillage the economy and the environment. We ought to let themspill oil all over the place, then argue about paying for the cleanup (Exxon-Mobil is still arguing about paying the damages in the lawsuits resulting fromthe Exxon Valdez disaster, and the U.S. Supreme Court isn't expected to issue a ruling until July). We ought to let them jack up the price of gasoline and heating oil and make truly obscene profits ($39.5 billion in 2006, $40.6 billion in 2007), because there are some little old men and ladies (sorry, pardner, you areWAY older thanme) who are afraid their stock prices will drop if we start bringing the companies to heel.

Specifically, you want to hold on to your ancient beige minivan with 138,000 miles on it, and you're afraid that if the Democrats crack down on companies like Exxon- Mobil, either somebody will take it away from you, or you won't be able to afford the gasoline to run it.

Is that a fair assessment of your argument?

Now granted, Exxon-Mobil paid $58 billion in taxes during the two-year period I mentioned, but the notion of big companies actually paying taxes out of their pockets like you and I do is ridiculous. They just pass the taxes along to consumers as the price of doing business. I sure wish you and I could do that. Ifwe could, neither one of us would have to drive an old Ford.

And even at that, they were paying those taxes on revenue of $377.64 billion in 2006, and $404.5 billion in 2007. Let's see, according to my trusty calculator, that means revenue for the two-year period was $782 billion, give or take a nickel, and they paid $58 billion in taxes, or about 7.5 percent.

What percentage of your 2007 income did you pay in taxes (assuming you've filed your return, and knowing you, I imagine you have)? I'll bet it wasmore than 7.5 percent. At my house (I know because I filed my return this morning), we paid a little over 17 percent of our income inU.S. taxes. Therefore, I pay over twice the percentage of my income that Exxon-Mobil pays in taxes.And let me tell you, they gripe about that. Difference is, they can afford lawyers to sue the government for bigger refunds, and I can't.

Are you starting to understandwhy people like BarackObama think big companies like Exxon-Mobil ought to be paying a bigger share of the costs of keeping our country afloat? Is asking them to pay a fair share "dismantling" them? Come on, Dave, aren't you overstating a smidge?

All reasonable people believe companies deserve to make a profit. That's what business is all about.And nobody wants to take your investment savings away, even theDemocrats. But it might be nice to get these fat cats to trimtheir big, jiggly beer bellies, just a little bit. If you think of it like that, Obama would really be doing thema favor.

On to Pennsylvania

Blue State Greg

You can reach Greg Bean via e-mail at

gbean @gmnews.com. Dave Simpson can be reached at d_simpson@bresnan.net.